Discover How Atlanta Interactive Marketing And Consumers Coexist

By Benjamin W. Luffkin


You might be wondering what the term interactive marketing means. Put simply, it means there is some sort of interaction or conversation between the marketer and the consumer. For the cutting edge of conversational advertising the city of Atlanta has been dubbed the marketing capital of the world. Atlanta is home to the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, AIMA.

Run by volunteers, the AIMA is a membership organization. It creates a forum where professionals and meet can exchange ideas. Professionals in this industry appreciate the importance of staying current. They join the AIMA to stay at the top of their chosen profession.

Within the organization there are several sub groups, called SIGs. These are special interest groups that focus on a particular aspect of advertising. Social media, email and mobile are some of the areas of interest. The AIMA website promotes educational forums and shares a blog with its members. The industry professionals work to stay current and evolve their methods as needed.

Marketing companies act as agents of the company trying influence consumer behavior. In this regard, the two function as one unit. Sometimes known, sometimes unknown to consumers, interactive advertising establishes two way communication where sellers learn about consumer tastes and behavior. The next email or ad that pops up on your Facebook page will be reflective of your preferences.

This two way dialogue between consumer and seller is best facilitated by the Internet. Within the Internet, social media is a strong component of conversational advertising. Although the consumer may not be fully aware he or she is communicating, they are in fact communicating with every click of their mouse. The old fashioned survey is another form of interactive advertising, but it is not as accurate or effective.

Besides the World Wide Web there are other low tech ways to market interactively. For example, when customers call a company to make request, the representative on the phone will tell the customer about other products or services. A radio or TV broadcast may offer a toll free number for the customer to call in order to comment or make a purchase. This is not nearly as economical or effective as the Internet, but it is interactive.

The venues for companies to reach customers has changed dramatically over the past fifty years when television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertisements were the prominent methods of advertising. Pay TV, pay radio and the news online have greatly reduced the effectiveness of old ways of advertising. The old saying that necessity is the mother of invention holds true in this instance. Old methods were no longer effective, so the advertising industry created new methods that adapted to how consumers function in the world today.




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