Generally speaking, advertising is the promotion of
goods, services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor.
Marketers
see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of
the promotional mix include
publicity,
public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.
Billboards and street advertising in
Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, (2005)
Online advertising is
advertising on the
Internet.
This particular form of advertising is a source of revenue for an increasing
number of websites and companies.
There are two sides to online advertising, a legitimate one and an
illegitimate one. The legitimate side of online advertising includes
search engine advertising,
advertising networks and
opt-in e-mail advertising. The illegitimate side is dominated by
spamming.
Though the range of advertising options has expanded since in the
commercialization of the Internet, the use of
rich media
and static images is extremely popular. The ever-increasing audience of online
users will likely continue to be a major advertising market.
