Traditional Advertising and Marketing Agencies

¶ … traditional advertising and marketing agencies are changing in order to compete with the new social media.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, and in which way, traditional advertising and marketing agencies are changing in order to compete with the new social media.

Overarching Research question:

Is traditional advertising and marketing agencies transforming it in order to compete with the new social media?

Specific research questions / hypotheses

H1: traditional advertising and marketing agencies are changing their habits in order to compete with the new social media

H0: traditional advertising and marketing agencies are not changing their habits in order to compete with the new social media

Type of study:

This will be a mixed methods study meaning that it will combine qualitative with quantitative methodology.

Procedure:

QUAL: a cross-sample, longitudinal approach will be conducted where the 15 most prominent offline media will be closely scrutinized in a phenomenological method in order to assess whether changes in their material or approach have occurred over a 30-year period from the 1980s to the present, namely through the growth of the popularity of social media.

These writings will be scrutinized for textual themes and researchers will investigate whether similarities exist between the style of social media and the style of these offline material.

QUAN: A survey will be conducted where journalists of these offline media outlets will be questioned regarding their fears of competition by online social media and whether they are attempting to transmogrify their form in order to retain their popularity. They will also be questioned regarding their attempts to maintain popularity and an edge in these changing times.

The survey will be coded and results will be analyzed via SPSS and a correlation statistic will be performed to test whether association exists between changes in offline media and growth / fear of competition form online media. Note: correlations do not indicate cause. Changes in style of offline media, if apparent, may be due to any number, or composite, of factors.

In order to encourage people to answer, question will be minimal. I will use a Likert scale with some questions being open-ended and others being closed. I would also pilot survey on a reflective population sample beforehand in order to ensure understanding, clarity, and relevance of questions. I would furthermore process study with IRB beforehand so as to screen for possible ethical concerns and have an objective group of associates read and decipher results so that misinterpretation will be prevented. Participants too may be approached for feedback in order to ensure that their responses have been correctly deciphered.

Variables / Concepts:

The independent variable is 'social media'. The dependent variable is 'traditional media.

Instrument analysis:

QUAL: phenomenological / textual analysis

QUAN: Survey

Data analysis:

QUAN: SPSS. Correlation

QUAL: Textual analysis.

Consent: