The History of Digital Marketing With the invention of the Internet, the world is progressively getting smaller and smaller. Back in the early 1990’s, the Internet began being used as a way for people to communicate with one another, search for information, and purchase things in an online forum. That was the beginning of the digital marketplace, which ultimately led to the need for digital marketing. There has been a great progression throughout the digital age. When looking at the growth of the Internet, it begins with “ web 1. 0. The “ early web allowed us to search for information and read it. There was very little in the way of user interaction or content contribution” (Getting, 2007). Essentially the early Internet was used as a “ read-only” form of communication and was very one sided. The first clickable banner ad ran in 1993, and Hotwired became the first company to buy banner ads in large quantities in 1994 (Spotlight, 2011). From that moment, marketing made a shift into the digital age. Each year, new technology was added into the digital marketing place.
Google was founded in 1998. Blogger. com came into existence in 1999. Blackberry launched their email program (Spotlight, 2011). Then the social networking sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook began popping up, allowing companies new ways to expand their network and new forms of communication and means of gathering information about potential clients to come into existence. One of the most telling signs of change came in 2006, when Time Magazine named “ You” as their Person of the Year. With a tagline reading, “ Yes, you. You control the Information Age.
Welcome to your world” (Time, 2006), Time made the statement, or perhaps even a prophecy, about the upcoming shifts the world would experience in the upcoming years. Acknowledging that the “ new web” is more than the dotcom blast of the 90’s or a way for scientists to share new information. Time said: “ The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2. 0, as if it were a new version of some old software.
But it’s really a revolution” (Grossman, 2006). And this revolution only continued growing from 2006. According to Wolfgang Jaegel and Gregory Smyth, “ Web 2. 0 is a cultural and paradigm shift. It affects what the Internet does, information it makes available, and how people use it” (2007). For much of the Internet’s early years, it was largely used as a resource to find information. In recent years, it has shifted to being a marketplace full of the exchange of ideas. This shift affects how marketing can now be done online. In 2011, “ 40% of [the] U. S. obile regularly browse the Internet on mobile [devices]” and Facebook has 750 million active users (Spotlight, 2011). Every day some new application is being added to Facebook, mobile phones, and websites. Each day the advertisements placed in these locations become more and more personalized. We have come a long way from the banner ads back in 1993. Now, sites like Hulu. com allow their viewers to choose which commercial is most relevant to them. YouTube. com even has ads running before their videos begin streaming. Billboards now have the capability to be completely digital as well.
Even celebrity endorsements are now going digital. All it takes is for Katy Perry or Khloe Kardashian to tweet an endorsement of a product to millions of their followers and sales will automatically begin going up. The new digital age of marketing is bringing us to new places every day, and it will certainly be interesting as we continue to progress to the new web phases. Works Cited Getting, Brian. “ Basic Definitions: Web 1. 0, Web. 2. 0, Web 3. 0 | Practical ECommerce. ” Resources for Online Business Owners | Practical ECommerce.
Practical Ecommerce, 18 Apr. 2007. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
