Commerical+Advertising

toc =Commerical Advertising=

History and Background
Commercial advertising has always been a central feature of American culture. As encountered in the [|mass media], it is pervasive and inescapable. In the United States, the advertising profession began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1841 when Volney B. Palmer set up shop as an advertising agent, the forerunner of the advertising agency. Agents contracted with newspapers for large amounts of advertising space at discount rates and then resold the space to advertisers at a higher rate. The ads themselves were created by the advertisers. In 1869 Francis Ayer bought out Palmer and founded N. W. Ayer & Son, an agency that still exists today. Ayer transformed the standard agent practice by billing advertisers exactly what he paid to publishers plus an agreed upon commission. Soon Ayer was not only selling space but was also conducting market research and writing the advertising copy.

Types
To reach the consumer, advertisers employ a wide variety of media. In the United States, the most popular media, as measured by the amount of ad spending, are [|television], [|newspapers], [|direct mail], [|radio], [|Yellow Pages], [|magazines], the [|Internet], outdoor advertising, and a variety of other media, including transit ads, novelties, and point-of-purchase displays. (These rankings are measured each year by //Advertising Age//, an advertising trade magazine, and seldom vary, although Internet advertising continues to grow significantly. In the first half of 2005, ad spending on the Internet increased 26 percent, far greater than the 4.5 percent growth for the entire advertising market.) In Canada, newspapers are the most popular advertising medium, followed by television, magazines, radio, and outdoor advertising. Canada is the ninth largest advertising market in the world.

ipod Ad on a public bus

More recently, there has been an increase of product placements, a type of covert advertising. The product is placed directly into movies. The actors/actresses use the product in the movies to promote the product. The name of the brand can also be included in the movies. A good example of this would be Taldladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby. There is heavy advertising throughout the whole movie. As you can see on the movie poster below, there is an advertisement for wonderbread on the race jacket.

Talladega Nights, movie poster

Television commercials are the most effective mass market advertising format. The airtimes during popular events aired on television or during prime time charges higher prices.Television attracts about 23 percent of the advertising dollars spent in the United States. Television is available to advertisers in two forms: broadcast and cable. Broadcast TV—television signals that are sent over the air rather than through cable wires—generates all of its revenue from advertising. Advertising accounts for about 60 percent of cable television revenues with the rest coming from subscriber fees.

A recent change in the direction of advertising companies is directing their advertising on the Internet. They are usually in forms of pop up ads or banners. Internet advertising is cost effective because it eliminates a lot of human labour such as delivery of such advertising. Users quickly scan the advertising and are aware of such products and services available. Data gathering is kept to a minimal because they can buy data information from professional data mining companies.

About banner ads on the internet
There are several ways to measure the success of a banner ad on the internet:

Clicks/click through: this is the number of people who have clicked on your ad and visited your site as a result. Web page owners usually sell space for banner ads on their web page by the cost per click (CPC). This rate is relatively low today on the internet. A dollar could buy many hits today. For example, many pages are selling clicks thorugh their site at 1,000 click per dollar or to more extreme cases of 10,000 click per dollar.

Click through rate: the click through rate is another factor that is used to measure how successful you banner ad is. The click through rate measures what percentage of visitors who visit a web page actually click on the ad and visit the link to the site. For example, six in every hundred people click on the banner and visit a page, then the click through rate would be 6%. The higher the click through rate, the more successful your banner is. Also, high click through rates may mean the owner of the web page thats selling space may be bringing in more profits from a financial perspective for their web page.

Cost per sale: this is used to measure how much money is spent to make a specific sale, usually in eCommerce over the internet. This is usually expressed in a dollar figure or percentage. For example, if you have spent a total of $1000 on 10 sales, then your cost per sale would be $100 per sale. It is important to keep in mind that you must spend less for banner ads and generating traffic that you actual sales or profits to stay in business.

Banner trading/trading traffic: some programs allow owners of different web pages to display banner ads of other pages in exchange for your ad being displayed on other sites. This is simply generating traffic from other sites by posting a ad on your site. This is economical for people who do not have a budget for advertising.

In 2004 the Internet accounted for $9.6 billion in advertising spending in the United States, or 3.7 percent of total ad spending, an increase from 3 percent in 2003, according to data gathered by the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. About 96 percent of ad spending on the Internet goes to 50 Web companies, mostly to four sites maintained by Yahoo, Google, America Online, and the Microsoft Network.

Television Commercial tend to enter the mind unconciously such that even though people may not be paying attention to the commercial they will remember it someday when they least expect it.

pop-up ad = = =External Links=

[|ad prints]
=Advertising Agencies=


 * [|Cossette Communications Group]
 * [|DDB]
 * [|MacLaren McCann]
 * [|Nope Advertising & Design]
 * [|Saatchi & Saatchi]
 * [|Publicis]

=References=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising [|http://www.stanford.edu/~siyengar/research/papers/advertising.html] http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564279_5/Advertising.html#s21

An Appeal to Reason Versus Emotion: Evolution of Advertising
Shifts in advertising techniques can be correlated to shifts in the media in which they are presented. During the 19th century, technology lilmited advertising formats, leaving print-ads the only option. Early print advertisements did not called upon the reader's reason, outlining specific selling points for a particular product and outlining why said product was beneficial. These advertising techniques, albeit rudimentary, delineated characteristics of their product. The advertisement below, for Esterbrook Pens, is such an example. The pen's features, "smooth point" and "stainless steel", as well as the company's expertise in the pen-making business are the points on which the sale of the product is dependent on. ¹

However, as new technologies emerged, such as photography and film, national advertisers changed their technique from providing information to attracting attention. Visual spectacles were used to capture the audience's eye. Advertiser's manipulated the attraction visual media garnered and applied a new pervasive technique to advertising: "therapeutic advertising" ². Advertisers actively tried to shape the consumer's desires by linking the success of a protagonist in their advertisement to their product. At the heart of therapeutic advertising was the promise that the product would contribute to the buyer's physical, emotional, and social well-being. Furthermore, the beneficial effects associated with the product would not apply if the person refusd to buy the product.

³

The product pushed in the above advertisement is associated with a high social standing. The advertisement suggests if you use Ponds, you too will be "a woman of high position".

This method of advertisement has entrenched itself in the social fabric of consumer culture today. For example, "coolness" and "sexiness" are now associations products like to make claim to. If you buy these products, ie/ Diesel Jeans, DKNY clothes, etc., certain advertisements suggest, you are part of the "it" club.

No matter what the era, therapeutic advertising will be a major technique prevalent in consumer culture because it preys upon people's needs to improve themselve: and what better and EFFICIENT way to do this than appeal to emotion?

If anyone would like to differ, please comment on this page.

Comments:
"Therapeutic advertising does not necessarily prey on people’s needs to //improve themselves//. This may be the case for certain products such as exercising equipment, and possibly clothing, but for many products a lot is driven by affordable “wants” and “needs”. No matter how “therapeutic” the advertisement, the price of the product will still be the main factor determining whether or not it is purchased. Necessity products such as food must be purchased, despite of price. This category of products differs from others because it is up to the individual to distinguish between those foods that would ultimately improve the individual. Therapeutic advertisements still apply but when it comes to people’s appetites, self-improvement does not become priority and the human innate desire to eat prevails". (SeeFood Advertisements for more!).