Web Everywhere: What It Means for Brands

We all agree that there are some significant changes happening in the media landscape. Problem is most of it, being Internet-driven, only affects a certain portion of the population and not all target markets. The younger generation, the Web savvy, the technophiles…right?

Wrong. The Web is everywhere. To clarify, let’s go on a little Internet history lesson.

Once upon a time the Internet was a thing we had to visit. First, in the post World War II era it was in military installations and universities. Only people in such institutions had access to the cutting edge technology required to access other computers, or more correctly the people at the other end of them.

Over the next 30 years, the technology slowly became available in only the largest and most tech savvy corporations. By the early 1980s, we’d see visuals of computers hooked up to phone lines and wonder what it was all about– in fact the first .com Internet address was registered in 1985. Even when the Internet entered the majority of corporations, it was most often limited to certain computers and executives. We had to book time to use the computer, which had the Internet on it. We had to wait patiently for our dial up modem to connect us to the Internet and download the information we needed.

Eventually, the Net was available on most computers in most homes. Later on, every desk in every company had it. After which every computer in every home had it. And now it’s on our laptops, in our cafes via the free Wi-Fi we all enjoy, in our pockets (on our handheld mobiles); it’s the GPS that directs our cars and powers the touch screen shopping mall directory.

Next year, all TVs sold will be Web-enabled – 5 billion channels. Yep, we’ll be able to watch live streaming YouTube videos, chat to our friends on Facebook, and do whatever we like on the Web in our lounge room using our remote control, sorry, “point and click TV mouse”.  We will be able to get all the entertainment we ever wanted – free.

Unless advertising messages are integrated into content, they won’t exist. Interruption marketing; the idea of getting free entertainment by agreeing to endure an interruption from our sponsors is about to evaporate forever.

The Internet came to us. Like any teenager, it was far too impatient for us to come to it. The graphical user interface Web is only 17 years old – Mosaic launched in 1993. By being impatient it removed the original demographic bias. The Web permeates our entire existence. Which means it has changed advertising forever.

The Web is everywhere. The Web is on every digital display in our lives. For teenagers, parents, and grandparents, the Web is no longer a thing or a place. It is omnipresent.

In 10 years time, some consumer-based businesses will be looking back wondering why they thought that Web and digital was a separate entity while those who embraced it will have stronger relationships with their brand stewards (their consumers) and have a once-in-a-generation advantage over their competitors.