Making your own ads

We have all used the Internet to make travel bookings for hotels, flights and cars; some of us have traded stocks on the Internet, but now the concept of creating things on the Internet is going to a whole new level. The New York Times writes about advertisers letting consumers make their own television commercials, without even going to an ad agency. You can now do it all on an automated advertisement creation system on the Internet. Using this method, advertisers save on costs and really get to know what consumers are thinking. So, will this new concept reduce the role of traditional advertising agencies? To an extent yes, they will be a threat to ad agencies, but companies who use this method will gain insight into the local element and be able to make the advertisements more relevant.

Visible World, based in New York, introduced a product this week that allows national advertisers to create thousands of custom versions of TV commercials. Visible World also plans to add online and mobile video ads to its system soon. And Spot Runner, an online ad agency based in Los Angeles that has been offering to make local TV commercials for $499, plans to branch into automated radio and Internet ad development later this year.