Tutorial 5

1. Identify and explain with relevant samples the four main roles of the internet.

a) Economic role
With the presence of Internet, it fulfils many of the objectives of marketing and advertising, from simply attracting attention through to facilitating exchange and building a brand. For instance, online ads. 
Let me use YouTube as an example. For being a YouTube Partner, you get paid by having ads put in your videos. Companies pay YouTube to advertise their product or site. Eventually, YouTube pays you a small share from the amount for having those ads in your videos. 
On top of that, users creating video and post it on video-sharing site, YouTube, can indirectly earn a small amount of business. If the viewers exceed a certain amount stated, YouTube will then pay them one cents upon every viewer count.     

b) Information role
It is a medium for information and news delivery, a cross-marketing tool for its other products and services, and a vehicle for generating revenue from selling space to other advertisers.
Wide range of search engine equipped with information.
Example: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia
Advertisers use online information to create and run own campaign.

c) Entertainment role
The existence of YouTube allows easy and quick access to entertainment videos (Example: Ryan Higa, WongFu Productions, etc) Video sharing websites such as Vimeo, Veoh etc. 
Ads become popular through YouTube (The Force: Volkswagen Commercial" (Volkswagen)
The infamous Star Wars ad for Volkwagen's 2012 Passsat was featured during the Super Bowl this year, and it became an instant viral hit. It's no surprise the video has the most views in 2011 -- it also held the highest number of shares).
Advertisers of entertainment products such as The Sims 3 finds internet the ideal place to launch new releases.

d) Social role
Evolution of social network site has became important to advertisers. 
Moreover, social network sites such as Facebook has become a major platform for advertising. 
SNS allows reader to engage in the community to publish their own materials. 
Instant feedback through SNS allows advertisers to receive an instant feedback from audience.

2. Explain the advantage and disadvantage of advertising on the internet.

Advantages:
a) Relatively inexpensive
It is relatively inexpensive to publish information on the Internet. At a fraction of the cost to publish information by traditional methods, various organizations and individuals can now distribute information to millions of users. It costs only a few thousand dollars to establish an Internet presence and publish content on the Internet. 

b) E-commerce
The concept of e-commerce is used for any type of commercial maneuvering or business deals that involves the transfer of information across the globe via the Internet. It has become a phenomenon associated with any kind of shopping, business deal etc. You name a service, and e-commerce with its giant tentacles engulfing every single product and service will make it available at your doorstep. Websites such as eBay allow you to even bid for homes, buy, sell or auction stuff online.

c) Advertisers can customize and personalize messages
It has less gatekeepers in internet advertising as compared to the advertising channels in other media. Advertisers can create a personal website, a set of ads and a database. Data collection  mining and retention means that an advertiser can input key demographic and behavioral variables, so as to make the customer feel that the ad is just for them.

d) Provide sales leads or actual sales
Business-to-business advertisers can access product catalogues, read the product specifications in depth, see a production demonstration, hear from the owner of the business, request a call from a salesperson or make a purchase online. The internet can level the playing field for small and medium-sized companies competing against larger organisations.

Disadvantages:

a) Inability of experts consistently produce effective ads and to measure their effectiveness
It has a negative flow-on effect. For example, lengthy waits for downloads, unproductive searching, privacy and security concerns are all reasons for consumers to withdraw from interaction or purchasing.

b) Clutter may be even worse than in other media
Too many unorganized ads moving or popping out at the same screen. It annoys internet users and make them ignore the ads.