The+Future+of+Advertising

Product placement was an early replacement for traditional advertising. It broke onto the scene when Hershey promoted their Reese's Pieces in the movie E.T. Hershey saw the future, whereas M&M/Mars did not, turning down Steven Spielberg's original offer for product placement.

When the World Wide Web arrived in the 1990s, the media heralded a New Economy. In reality, advertising was simply placed on the Internet through banner ads and pop-ups, and the inflated expectations (now known as the Tech Bubble) burst in 1999.

As business models evolved, genuine breakthroughs appeared. Google AdWords and AdSense have transformed the functioning of the Internet as a business tool. Likewise, Facebook and Twitter are now standard marketing tools. These work well because they are tightly integrated with the lifestyle of the Web users, in terms of how they surf, shop, play, share, and save/make money.

Business models will again change radically with the availability of a genuine edutainment market.

Documentaries, historical fiction, reality programs, and mission-based content already offer fun ways for viewers to learn. If you take a look at a traditional documentary or the 1960s Disney featurettes on wildlife, you realize how far edutainment has come. Nevertheless, it is still in its infancy. The problem is that educators haven't figured out how to integrate content into curricula in a meaningful way. This is mainly because content wasn't available. Now, with the smorgasbord of online educational content, including Khan Academy and MIT's OpenCourseWare, the worlds of education, entertainment, and advertising are about to collide with a great Big Bang that will create a new universe for all three. Education, entertainment, and advertising will never be the same.

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