In the early 1920s when television was just on its beginning phase, advertisers already recognized that there was a possible markets this medium can open. As the people became more and more dependent on the television for information and entertainment purposes, enterprises started entrusting the marketing of their products and services to advertising firms that dealt mainly with the audio-visual medium. Television ads turned into staple advertising devices and were claimed to be the most effective mass-market marketing format.
Every country pursues TV marketing differently. In some nations like South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom, it is quite limited, and every advertiser is bound by certain rules. In nations like the Philippines and Bangladesh, while there are regulations as well, advertisers are self-regulated by the private network manager, which is a less strict policing mechanism than what other nations have in place.
This doesn't matter a great deal in the world of marketing.
Goodbye TV, Hello Internet and SEO
When the television advertising boom in the US started in the latter part of the 1950s and stretched out till the late 1990's, nobody had an inkling that it would soon encounter a deserving competitor in the form of an unknown, arising medium. The Internet was then simply a tool for huge research firms and nobody recognized that it would be the concept of search engines that would catalyze its popularity. When Yahoo and Google pioneered the search market, the marketing arena evolved, and it evolved the most for television, because consumers were spending less time watching television and more time surfing the Internet.
This doesn't mean that the television is an inefficient marketing medium; in fact, television advertisements are still a great marketing bet-- advertisers still channel a lot of resources into their television advertising efforts despite the precarious state of the economy. Nonetheless, there is no denying that the widespread dependence on the Internet has decreased the appeal of TV adverts for businesses. The evolution of the Internet has paved the way for different advertising methods that are more affordable than existing promotional media. Processes such as PPC and Search Engine Optimization are now popular, but it is the second that has attained unrivaled success in the online advertising world. From this, a number of business ideas were born, such as White Label SEO, reselling, and commercial web designing.
Marketers trail the consumers
Because a marketer's job entails convincing people to get certain products and services from their customers, it just follows for advertisers to go where the people presently are. When consumers were just into print media, comic books, magazines, newspapers, and paperbacks were crammed with adverts that pitched particular brands. The same thing occurred when radio and TV took over--the advertising industry began to revolve around commercials.
Some might even think of marketers as parasites, latching on to different media until more desirable options make themselves available. But being a parasite in the field of advertising is a positive thing, for going to places where there exist no potential clients is certainly an useless move and a waste of time.
It's clear where the consumers are at present. They can be found on the Internet. Therefore, it's no shock that marketers are online too.
Where You Are, I Will Follow: An Advertiser's Code