This the age of distinctive identity creation; where brands and products speak to customers in different languages. This should not surprise anyone because brands need distinctiveness and personality which differentiate them from competitors in order to persuade their target market to identify and make a purchasing decision (Graham Taylor 2004).

What is paramount in today’s media world is strategizing on how to reach the consumer. What would you do if you were a consumer marketer who was confronted with the following challenges: media fragmentation; declining consumer loyalty; global competition; price commoditization; disruptive communication technologies; unrelenting pressure for return-on-investment (ROI), etc?

Are you still buying mass media advertising in an attempt to reach a large number of consumers? Is this the only cost-effective choice open to you? Forward-looking chief executives are now diligently paying attention to measuring returns on their marketing investments thereby causing changes in the media mix. Small and large advertisers are constantly searching for new but cost-effective ways of connecting with consumers. Reaching your core customer in different, non-traditional ways is now a vital prerequisite. Inventive concepts that bypass the status quo are now being devised while the mindset of major brand marketers as well as local advertisers is changing in a dramatic style to include alternative media as the primary choice for branding and stimulating consumers to action.

Also technological breakthroughs are facilitating better modes of communicating, while the emergence of new media keeps enhancing reach on almost every level. It is therefore not surprising that we are beginning to witness new advertising vehicles which are wider in reach, specific in targeting and lower in cost. It is noteworthy that lately technological company, Visible World developed software in partnership with Sea Change International Inc. in the U.S which, within seconds, can produce thousands of versions of a television commercial changing features like music, voiceover and graphics so as to enhance its appeal to specific groups of viewers (Chicago Tribune Oct. 14, 2004). Similarly in Norway, Opera, maker of the No.3 web browser for Windows computers has also developed technology to make sites appear as clearly on average television sets as they do on computer monitors (Doug Mellgren 2004). Opportunities open to advertisers are better imagined!

As a matter of fact Microsoft Chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates, says traditional broadcast television has no future against the backdrop that new and better models made possible by technology are emerging. In the U.S demand for advertising agency involvement in search marketing is increasing, according to a recent JupiterResearch study. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a form of online marketing where your website is made relevant for search engines as well as searchers looking for your product or service on the Internet (Chrisitne Stander 2004).

Overture, a subsidiary of Yahoo! through its Ambassador programme founded in 2001, targets agencies that spend over $20,000 monthly on behalf of their clients. The programme covers paid placement product as well as paid inclusion, local match and performance marketing (Pamela Parker 2004).

At the International Advertising Association (IAA) World Congress in Beijing in September 2004, delegates heard that consumers now possess the power and the knowledge to alter marketing behaviour through web publishing (Weblogs). Since weblogs usually have a strong impact on what consumers think, they constitute a veritable outlet for advertising messages. Weblogs are a form of do-it-yourself publishing on the web. For example, Pyra’s Blogger site alone as at March 2003 had one million subscribers (Time Magazine 2003).

If it is really true that there are 10 million PC gamers who play online and another three million who are connected to the Internet courtesy of their console, then what are advertisers waiting for? (AdAge 2004). Advertisers with foresight are already cashing in as clearly shown in a recent study which shows that revenues from game advertising worldwide will grow from its current $200 million to $1 billion in 2008 (May Wong 2004). The marketing budget for advertisements in videogames at Daimler Chrysler AG’s Chrysler Group used to be zero as at 2000. However, now it represents over 10% of the division’s total marketing budget placing its assorted brands in more than 12 video games while amount spent on television and print advertisements has reduced.

The use of electronic kiosks by advertisers is also a growing trend. These are terminals that disseminate information and services to the public through touch-screens and video displays. In the U.S, On Sight Media launched its Wish Mall Network in 19 malls nationwide on December 01, 1998. The device combines broadcast advertising with entertaining programming and features sponsor advertisements as well as news, movie trailers and music videos (Primedia 2004).

The Plasma Touch is also a delight; a 40-inch flat screen with patented touch-screen technology, Plasma Touch makes it possible for consumers to interact with advertisements and programming. By touching the screen you can retrieve a mall directory with specific directions that drive you to the advertiser’s retail store or a store within the mall where the item can be bought.

Retailers also use flat-screen televisions to attract customers. Digital signage is gradually impacting high-end and mass-market retail alike. The televisions are slim-profile screens (installed in walls and display cases) aggressively used by retailers to push their brands. Bank of America (BAC) for example, makes use of flat screens in 360 of its 5,800 branches which show advertisements on different types of its banking services and also play CNN and CNBC to entertain customers while they transact business especially during peak waiting times (Burt Helm 2004).

In South Africa, Sandton City, precisely, digital screens installed in elevators are already being used to reach a captive shopping audience. Courtesy of AdWraps, an outdoor media company, 15-inch LCD screens now constitute part of a couple of elevators at strategic points where shoppers have a short time to wait and kill time (Holland Park 2004).

Similarly New Vision Media is pioneering what it calls Elevator Media Channel (EMC) in South Africa. It is targeted at high-income earners who watch LCD screens in selected elevators of top office apartments during the workday. The goal is to reach consumers when they are making crucial business and personal decisions. I am also aware that this concept has already recorded tremendous success in the United States and Australia.

There are two media concepts in India (a Third World country like Nigeria) that excite me- voice-reach advertising and vidiwall. Voice-reach enables advertisers to broadcast audio messages to a defined target audience. Through the medium you are able to communicate with your friends and business associates at the cost of a local telephone call. Aside from listening to familiar voices in your mailbox, which can be accessed through a local number, you can also hear a commercial advertisement (TNE Systems 2004). These commercials usually target users based on the profile they submit at the time they are registering.

The vidiwall falls in the category of electronic kiosks as well. It is a mega screen that is capable of broadcasting high quality audio visuals. It is a trademarked Philips solution adopted for dedicated Point-of-Sale and Point-of-Information usage. It is noted for grabbing attention in an interesting way.

Advertising in parking lots on shopping cart stations is another trend in the media world that is also worth mentioning. Pioneering it in the U.S is a company called KartDox with headquarters in Las Vegas. Advertisements are placed on shopping cart docks in parking lots (Kathy Prentice 2004). It is instructive that Pepsi launched a KartDox campaign in October last year.

What started as a casual dinner in 1999 in Hamptons, Long Island, between Eric Cohen, his wife Joyce Shulman and a couple of their friends, led to a revolutionary concept in America’s advertising. After looking at the Pizza box on the table and it did not contain any advertisements, it dawned on Cohen that he and his wife could partner with Gil Korine, owner of pizza-box maker Avco Industries. In 2000 Mangia Media was born and the rest is history (Olga Kharif 2004). Pizza box advertisers include Verizon, Time Warner’s TBS channel, Clorox, Internet service provider United Online, and beverage maker Snapple.

Our traditional media owners should find ever more pressure to prove their value in the marketing mix. Ambitious advertisers should learn to project marketing messages into the digital fabric of online games. When will the proverbial light bulb light up for Nigeria’s marketing communications industry? Why can we not take a cue from BMW, for example, which has looked for other media that are invited into consumers’ homes, e.g. the groundbreaking BMW films on the Internet? What if we experience the TiVo" syndrome? TiVo pioneered digital video recorders (DVRs) in 1999 which make it possible for you to skip advertisements. What if our market is flooded with interactive televisions? Are these threats or challenges to our marketing communications industry?

Larry Light, global chief marketing officer at McDonald’s once remarked openly that broadcast-centric model was dead. According to him, mass marketing today is a mass mistake." Nigerian advertisers need to be more concerned than ever about getting value for money.

What will increasingly matter, according to Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP’s CEO, is not what it costs to put an advertisement before 1,000 people (a traditional measure), but how

effective is that cost-per-thousand?" (The Economist June 24, 2004).

We should stop taking the Nigerian consumer for granted because soon he/she will become far more sophisticated in his/her reaction to all forms of advertising and marketing. Perhaps then we shall device smatter ways of reaching our consumers.