There is no doubt that we are in the midst of many changes in the world of marketing and advertising as new technologies are changing the way we view and interact with businesses and products.

As copywriting professionals, we feel these changes too. Attention spans are shrinking, new mediums are developing and competition is increasing. Staying on top of it all has become essential in staying competitive.

As copywriters, our job is to convey information in a way that best informs the reader (usually aka a potential buyer) with the least amount of friction, while keeping their interest and convincing them of an idea.

To do this, we need to intimately understand the medium and technology that we are writing for. Today, I will be looking at some of these new technologies that will be helping to shape the next revolution in marketing and advertising.

1. Hypersonic Speakers

"The HyperSonic Sound technology gives you the ability to direct sound where you want it and nowhere else. With the combination of an ultrasonic powered emitter and a proprietary signal processor/amplifier, HSS can focus sound into a tight beam for optimal sound directionality and intelligibility. Similar to a beam of light, HSS uses ultrasonic energy to "shine" your sound on a very specific area. Using any media player with line-level output, HSS converts music or voice into a complex ultrasonic signal prior to amplification. Once emitted, the converted sound forms a sound column in front of the emitter, which remains focused as it encounters a listener located in the narrow column of sound." - m-media.com

Imagine the advertising implications of this technology. It would enable advertisers to direct messages at specified targets, delivering specialized copy to only those who might be interested in hearing it. This technology could single handedly bring voice based advertising to the real world. Think about the applications in supermarkets, malls, etc.

From a copywriting perspective, it would certainly be a challenge to adapt to this new medium. Radio and TV have the advantage of a semi-captive audience that accepts and expects advertising. Copywriting in this medium will have to be interesting enough to grab attention and non-intrusive enough to avoid annoyance.

2. RFID Targeted Advertising

RFID stands for radio-frequency identification and is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag can be stuck on or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. As applied to advertising, RFID's provide a way to individually track real world buyers, referring information such as buying habits and location and more. This would allow for extremely specific targeted advertising. Imagine this combined with the HyperSonic speaker technology. Personalized ads delivered to your ears only that is relevant and effective. Scary stuff.

3. Elimination of a restricted on-page real estate

Stepping back from the offline world, a new technology was introduced this past year at the TED convention that can overcome the problem of limited on screen real estate space. Here is a video of the amazing technology, the video explains the implications in detail.

4. OLEDs and the next generation of outdoor advertising

This amazing technology promises paper thin video screens that are flexible and can be affixed to most surfaces. The breadth of possible applications for this new display technology is staggering. Here are two videos showing the technology and showcasing some possible future applications. Although cheap OLED displays are still years off, it is not hard to imagine a time when almost every available advertising surface will be covered with these flexible vibrant screens.

5. Transformation of New Space for Advertising

In a world increasingly more crowded with TV, Radio, Internet and Outdoor advertising, advertisers are having a harder time than ever distinguishing themselves from everyone else. This has led to an increase in "outside the box" type advertising, especially in the outdoor space. Guerilla and Ambient advertising have taken off as extremely effective techniques. Here are a few examples of how advertisers are increasing their visibility by transforming almost anything into an opportunity to advertise.

6. Mobile Advertising

As the youngest, but probably most exciting, new marketing and advertising medium, there is still tons of speculation as to how exactly advertisers are going to be able to interact with mobile phone users. There are many different schools of thought on how mobile advertising will be most effective.

1. Marketing Via SMS/MMS

-Simple text or multimedia based advertising. Obtrusive, and not necessarily targeted, but easy to do. Much of this done today is "coupon" based, where text messages offer some sort of discount for the products or services of local advertisers.

2. Mobile Web banner advertising

-This is advertising on the mobile web. Similar to today's traditional online banner advertising, but on your mobile.

3. Location Based Mobile Advertising

-Using GPS-enabled phones to serve up advertisements (usually as text messages) when in proximity to a local advertiser. A great concept with many hurdles. It would need many advertisers and users signed up for this to work. I could see it working well in large cities.

4. Video Ads

-Video ads served on video enabled cell phones. This is certainly a workable concept, but the technology is not quite there, video on cell phones is slow and has a low market penetration with a minority of phones being video-enabled.

5. Interstitial Ads

-Ads displayed during downloads, or other cell phone downtime. Probably the most versatile and least obtrusive advertising idea for mobile phones. These ads would play during ringtone, game, or application downloads.