Advertising

A Coca-Cola advertisement from the 1890s

Marketing
Key concepts
Product • Pricing
Distribution • Service • Retail
Brand management
Account-based marketing
Marketing ethics
Marketing effectiveness
Market research
Market segmentation
Marketing strategy
Marketing management
Market dominance
Promotional content
Advertising • Branding • Underwriting
Direct marketing • Personal Sales
Product placement • Publicity
Sales promotion • Sex in advertising
Loyalty marketing • Premiums • Prizes
Promotional media
Printing • Publication
Broadcasting • Out-of-home
Internet marketing • Point of sale
Promotional merchandise
Digital marketing • In-game
In-store demonstration
 Word-of-mouth marketing
Brand Ambassador • Drip Marketing
This box: view • talk • edit

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers,

readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas, or services. It
includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit
the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular
brand. These messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various media.
Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a large number of people in an
attempt to convince them to take a certain action.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or

services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in
an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Non-
commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer
product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and
governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion,
such as a public service announcement.

Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early
20th centuries. Mass media can be defined as any media meant to reach a mass amount of
people. Different types of media can be used to deliver these messages, including
traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct
mail; or new media such as websites and text messages.

In 2010, spending on advertising was estimated at more than $300 billion in the United
States[1] and $500 billion worldwide[citation needed].

Internationally, the largest ("big four") advertising conglomerates are Interpublic,

Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP.
History

Edo period advertising flyer from 1806 for a traditional medicine called Kinseitan

Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Commercial messages
and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient
Arabia. Lost and found advertising on papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and
Ancient Rome. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation
of an ancient advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa,
and South America. The tradition of wall painting can be traced back to Indian rock art
paintings that date back to 4000 BC.[2] History tells us that Out-of-home advertising and
billboards are the oldest forms of advertising.

As the towns and cities of the Middle Ages began to grow, and the general populace was
unable to read, signs that today would say cobbler, miller, tailor or blacksmith would use
an image associated with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a
horse shoe, a candle or even a bag of flour. Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city
square from the backs of carts and wagons and their proprietors used street callers (town
criers) to announce their whereabouts for the convenience of the customers.

As education became an apparent need and reading, as well as printing, developed

advertising expanded to include handbills. In the 17th century advertisements started to
appear in weekly newspapers in England. These early print advertisements were used
mainly to promote books and newspapers, which became increasingly affordable with
advances in the printing press; and medicines, which were increasingly sought after as
disease ravaged Europe. However, false advertising and so-called "quack" advertisements
became a problem, which ushered in the regulation of advertising content.

As the economy expanded during the 19th century, advertising grew alongside. In the
United States, the success of this advertising format eventually led to the growth of mail-
order advertising.
In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its
pages, allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and
the formula was soon copied by all titles. Around 1840, Volney B. Palmer established a
predecessor to advertising agencies in Boston.[3] Around the same time, in France,
Charles-Louis Havas extended the services of his news agency, Havas to include
advertisement brokerage, making it the first French group to organize. At first, agencies
were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers. N. W. Ayer & Son was the first full-
service agency to assume responsibility for advertising content. N.W. Ayer opened in
1869, and was located in Philadelphia.[3]

An 1895 advertisement for a weight gain product.

At the turn of the century, there were few career choices for women in business;
however, advertising was one of the few. Since women were responsible for most of the
purchasing done in their household, advertisers and agencies recognized the value of
women's insight during the creative process. In fact, the first American advertising to use
a sexual sell was created by a woman – for a soap product. Although tame by today's
standards, the advertisement featured a couple with the message "The skin you love to
touch".[4]
Advertisements of hotels in Pichilemu, Chile from 1935.

In the early 1920s, the first radio stations were established by radio equipment
manufacturers and retailers who offered programs in order to sell more radios to
consumers. As time passed, many non-profit organizations followed suit in setting up
their own radio stations, and included: schools, clubs and civic groups.[5] When the
practice of sponsoring programs was popularised, each individual radio program was
usually sponsored by a single business in exchange for a brief mention of the business'
name at the beginning and end of the sponsored shows. However, radio station owners
soon realised they could earn more money by selling sponsorship rights in small time
allocations to multiple businesses throughout their radio station's broadcasts, rather than
selling the sponsorship rights to single businesses per show.

A print advertisement for the 1913 issue of the Encyclopædia Britannica

This practice was carried over to television in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A fierce
battle was fought between those seeking to commercialise the radio and people who
argued that the radio spectrum should be considered a part of the commons – to be used
only non-commercially and for the public good. The United Kingdom pursued a public
funding model for the BBC, originally a private company, the British Broadcasting
Company, but incorporated as a public body by Royal Charter in 1927. In Canada,
advocates like Graham Spry were likewise able to persuade the federal government to
adopt a public funding model, creating the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
However, in the United States, the capitalist model prevailed with the passage of the
Communications Act of 1934 which created the Federal Communications Commission.[5]
However, the U.S. Congress did require commercial broadcasters to operate in the
"public interest, convenience, and necessity".[6] Public broadcasting now exists in the
United States due to the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act which led to the Public
Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.

In the early 1950s, the DuMont Television Network began the modern practice of selling
advertisement time to multiple sponsors. Previously, DuMont had trouble finding
sponsors for many of their programs and compensated by selling smaller blocks of
advertising time to several businesses. This eventually became the standard for the
commercial television industry in the United States. However, it was still a common
practice to have single sponsor shows, such as The United States Steel Hour. In some
instances the sponsors exercised great control over the content of the show—up to and
including having one's advertising agency actually writing the show. The single sponsor
model is much less prevalent now, a notable exception being the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

The 1960s saw advertising transform into a modern approach in which creativity was
allowed to shine, producing unexpected messages that made advertisements more
tempting to consumers' eyes. The Volkswagen ad campaign—featuring such headlines as
"Think Small" and "Lemon" (which were used to describe the appearance of the car)—
ushered in the era of modern advertising by promoting a "position" or "unique selling
proposition" designed to associate each brand with a specific idea in the reader or
viewer's mind. This period of American advertising is called the Creative Revolution and
its archetype was William Bernbach who helped create the revolutionary Volkswagen ads
among others. Some of the most creative and long-standing American advertising dates
to this period.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly
MTV. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of
advertising: the consumer tunes in for the advertising message, rather than it being a by-
product or afterthought. As cable and satellite television became increasingly prevalent,
specialty channels emerged, including channels entirely devoted to advertising, such as
QVC, Home Shopping Network, and ShopTV Canada.

Marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and contributed to
the "dot-com" boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising
revenue, offering everything from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st
century, a number of websites including the search engine Google, started a change in
online advertising by emphasizing contextually relevant, unobtrusive ads intended to
help, rather than inundate, users. This has led to a plethora of similar efforts and an
increasing trend of interactive advertising.
Advertisement for a live radio broadcast, sponsored by a milk company and published in
the Los Angeles Times on May 6, 1930

The share of advertising spending relative to GDP has changed little across large changes
in media. For example, in the US in 1925, the main advertising media were newspapers,
magazines, signs on streetcars, and outdoor posters. Advertising spending as a share of
GDP was about 2.9 percent. By 1998, television and radio had become major advertising
media. Nonetheless, advertising spending as a share of GDP was slightly lower—about
2.4 percent.[7]

A recent advertising innovation is "guerrilla marketing", which involve unusual

approaches such as staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as
cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer
can respond to become part of the advertising [Link] advertising is becoming
increasing more popular with a lot of companies. This type of advertising is unpredictable
and innovative, which causes consumers to buy the product or idea. This reflects an
increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement,
having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social
network services such as Facebook.

Public service advertising

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be
used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as
HIV/AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation and deforestation.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of

reaching and motivating large audiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when used in
the public interest—it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial
purposes." Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy.

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause

marketing, and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of
sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated
with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and
initiatives.

In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is
contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service advertising.
To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their
required public service announcements during the late night or early morning when the
smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time
commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.

Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and II under the
direction of more than one government. During WWII President Roosevelt
commissioned the creation of The War Advertising Council (now known as the Ad
Council) which is the nation's largest developer of PSA campaigns on behalf of
government agencies and non-profit organizations, including the longest-running PSA
campaign, Smokey Bear.

Marketing mix

The marketing mix has been the key concept to advertising. The marketing mix was
suggested by Jeremy McCarthy, professor at Harvard Business School, in the 1960s. The
marketing mix consists of four basic elements called the four P’s Product is the first P
representing the actual product. Price represents the process of determining the value of a
product. Place represents the variables of getting the product to the consumer like
distribution channels, market coverage and movement organization. The last P stands for
Promotion which is the process of reaching the target market and convincing them to go
out and buy the [Link], Mugur Valentin.[8]

Advertising Theory

• Hierarchy of effects model[9]

It clarifies the objectives of an advertising campaign and for each individual

advertisement. The model suggests that there are six steps a consumer or a business buyer
moves through when making a purchase. The steps are:

1. Awareness
2. Knowledge
 3. Liking
4. Preference
5. Conviction
6. The actual purchase

• Means-End Theory

This approach suggests that an advertisement should contain a message or means that
leads the consumer to a desired end state.

• Leverage Points

It is designed to move the consumer from understanding a product's benefits to linking

those benefits with personal values.

• Verbal and Visual Images

Types of advertising

Paying people to hold signs is one of the oldest forms of advertising, as with this Human
billboard pictured above

A bus with an advertisement for GAP in Singapore. Buses and other vehicles are popular
mediums for advertisers.
A DBAG Class 101 with UNICEF ads at Ingolstadt main railway station

Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can
include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack
cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens,
shopping carts, web popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines,
newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes
("logojets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins,
taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway
platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers,doors of bathroom stalls,stickers
on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of
streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket
receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a
medium is advertising.

Digital advertising
Television advertising / Music in advertising
The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market
advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for
commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football
game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on
television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game
has reached US$3 million (as of 2009). The majority of television commercials
feature a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product. Virtual
advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through
computer graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank backdrops[10] or
used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote broadcast
audience.[11] More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted into the
background[12] where none exist in real-life. This technique is especially used in
televised sporting events[13] [14] Virtual product placement is also possible.;[15][16]
Infomercials: An infomercial is a long-format television commercial, typically
five minutes or longer. The word "infomercial" combining the words
"information" & "commercial". The main objective in an infomercial is to create
an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then
immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number
or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and
their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry
professionals.
Radio advertising
 Radio advertising is a form of advertising via the medium of radio. Radio
advertisements are broadcast as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an
antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or
network in exchange for airing the commercials. While radio has the obvious
limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio advertising often cite
this as an advantage.
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide
Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract
customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on
search engine results pages, banner ads, in text ads, Rich Media Ads, Social
network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-
mail marketing, including e-mail spam.
Product placements
Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or
brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main
character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority
Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton owns a phone with the
Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the
Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where main
character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times,
calling them "classics," because the film is set far in the future. I, Robot and
Spaceballs also showcase futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos
clearly displayed on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the
movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which
Cadillac cars were used. Similarly, product placement for Omega Watches, Ford,
VAIO, BMW and Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James Bond films,
most notably Casino Royale. In "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer", the
main transport vehicle shows a large Dodge logo on the front. Blade Runner
includes some of the most obvious product placement; the whole film stops to
show a Coca-Cola billboard.

[edit] Physical advertising

Press advertising
Press advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper,
magazine, or trade journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very
broad readership base, such as a major national newspaper or magazine, to more
narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and trade journals on very
specialized topics. A form of press advertising is classified advertising, which
allows private individuals or companies to purchase a small, narrowly targeted ad
for a low fee advertising a product or service. Another form of press advertising is
the Display Ad, which is a larger ad (can include art) that typically run in an
article section of a newspaper.
Billboard advertising: Billboards are large structures located in public places
which display advertisements to passing pedestrians and motorists. Most often,
they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and
 pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts
of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or
office buildings, and in stadiums.

The RedEye newspaper advertised to its target market at North Avenue Beach with a
sailboat billboard on Lake Michigan.
Mobile billboard advertising
Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens.
These can be on dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along
routes preselected by clients, they can also be specially equipped cargo trucks or,
in some cases, large banners strewn from planes. The billboards are often lighted;
some being backlit, and others employing spotlights. Some billboard displays are
static, while others change; for example, continuously or periodically rotating
among a set of advertisements. Mobile displays are used for various situations in
metropolitan areas throughout the world, including: Target advertising, One-day,
and long-term campaigns, Conventions, Sporting events, Store openings and
similar promotional events, and Big advertisements from smaller companies.
In-store advertising
In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes
placement of a product in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the
ends of aisles and near checkout counters, eye-catching displays promoting a
specific product, and advertisements in such places as shopping carts and in-store
video displays.
Coffee cup advertising
Coffee cup advertising is any advertisement placed upon a coffee cup that is
distributed out of an office, café, or drive-through coffee shop. This form of
advertising was first popularized in Australia, and has begun growing in
popularity in the United States, India, and parts of the Middle East.[citation needed]
Street advertising
This type of advertising first came to prominence in the UK by Street Advertising
Services to create outdoor advertising on street furniture and pavements. Working
 with products such as Reverse Graffiti and 3d pavement advertising, the media
became an affordable and effective tool for getting brand messages out into public
spaces.
Celebrity branding
This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money,
popularity to gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or
products. Advertisers often advertise their products, for example, when celebrities
share their favorite products or wear clothes by specific brands or designers.
Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print
adverts to advertise specific or general products. The use of celebrities to endorse
a brand can have its downsides, however. One mistake by a celebrity can be
detrimental to the public relations of a brand. For example, following his
performance of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China,
swimmer Michael Phelps' contract with Kellogg's was terminated, as Kellogg's
did not want to associate with him after he was photographed smoking marijuana.

[edit] Sales promotions

Sales promotions are another way to advertise. Sales promotions are double purposed
because they are used to gather information about what type of customers you draw in
and where they are, and to jumpstart sales. Sales promotions include things like contests
and games, sweepstakes, product giveaways, samples coupons, loyalty programs, and
discounts. The ultimate goal of sales promotions is to stimulate potential customers to
action. [17]

[edit] Media and advertising approaches

Increasingly, other media are overtaking many of the "traditional" media such as
television, radio and newspaper because of a shift toward consumer's usage of the
Internet for news and music as well as devices like digital video recorders (DVRs) such
as TiVo.

Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based

advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and
the traffic that the website receives.

Digital signage is poised to become a major mass media because of its ability to reach
larger audiences for less money. Digital signage also offer the unique ability to see the
target audience where they are reached by the medium. Technological advances have also
made it possible to control the message on digital signage with much precision, enabling
the messages to be relevant to the target audience at any given time and location which in
turn, gets more response from the advertising. Digital signage is being successfully
employed in supermarkets.[18] Another successful use of digital signage is in hospitality
locations such as restaurants.[19] and malls.[20]
E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is
known as "e-mail spam". Spam has been a problem for email users for many years.

Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of
booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the
effectiveness of subliminal advertising (see mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass
messages (see propaganda).

Unpaid advertising (also called "publicity advertising"), can provide good exposure at
minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or
achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common noun (in the United States,
"Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" = tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly, "Hoover" =
vacuum cleaner, "Nintendo" (often used by those exposed to many video games) = video
games, and "Band-Aid" = adhesive bandage) — these can be seen as the pinnacle of any
advertising campaign. However, some companies oppose the use of their brand name to
label an object. Equating a brand with a common noun also risks turning that brand into a
genericized trademark - turning it into a generic term which means that its legal
protection as a trademark is lost.

As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid
downloadable content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time
until mobile advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000. By 2007 the
value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob
delivered billions of mobile ads.

More advanced mobile ads include banner ads, coupons, Multimedia Messaging Service
picture and video messages, advergames and various engagement marketing campaigns.
A particular feature driving mobile ads is the 2D Barcode, which replaces the need to do
any typing of web addresses, and uses the camera feature of modern phones to gain
immediate access to web content. 83 percent of Japanese mobile phone users already are
active users of 2D barcodes.

A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It is

online advertising with a focus on social networking sites. This is a relatively immature
market, but it has shown a lot of promise as advertisers are able to take advantage of the
demographic information the user has provided to the social networking site.
Friendertising is a more precise advertising term in which people are able to direct
advertisements toward others directly using social network service.

From time to time, The CW Television Network airs short programming breaks called
"Content Wraps," to advertise one company's product during an entire commercial break.
The CW pioneered "content wraps" and some products featured were Herbal Essences,
Crest, Guitar Hero II, CoverGirl, and recently Toyota.

Recently, there appeared a new promotion concept, "ARvertising", advertising on

Augmented Reality technology.
[edit] Current trends
[edit] Rise in new media

With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash,
banner, Popunder, advergaming, and email advertisements (the last often being a form of
spam) are now commonplace. Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising,
some people may like an advertisement enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend.
In general, the advertising community has not yet made this easy, although some have
used the Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing to see or hear them. In
the last three quarters of 2009 mobile and internet advertising grew by 18.1% and 9.2%
respectively. Older media advertising saw declines: −10.1% (TV), −11.7% (radio),
−14.8% (magazines) and −18.7% (newspapers ).[citation needed]

[edit] Niche marketing

Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of the
niche market using niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the
theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach specific
audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the
largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and
the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social
networking sites, provide advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better
defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for
companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser
employing this method in their video on demand menus. These advertisements are
targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about
a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the
viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.
[21]

[edit] Crowdsourcing
Main article: Crowdsourcing

The concept of crowdsourcing has given way to the trend of user-generated

advertisements. User-generated ads are created by consumers as opposed to an
advertising agency or the company themselves, most often they are a result of brand
sponsored advertising competitions. For the 2007 Super Bowl, the Frito-Lays division of
PepsiCo held the Crash the Super Bowl contest, allowing consumers to create their own
Doritos commercial.[22] Chevrolet held a similar competition for their Tahoe line of
SUVs.[22] Due to the success of the Doritos user-generated ads in the 2007 Super Bowl,
Frito-Lays relaunched the competition for the 2009 and 2010 Super Bowl. The resulting
ads were among the most-watched and most-liked Super Bowl ads. In fact, the winning
ad that aired in the 2009 Super Bowl was ranked by the USA Today Super Bowl Ad
Meter as the top ad for the year while the winning ads that aired in the 2010 Super Bowl
were found by Nielsen's BuzzMetrics to be the "most buzzed-about".[23][24]
This trend has given rise to several online platforms that host user-generated advertising
competitions on behalf of a company. Founded in 2007, Zooppa has launched ad
competitions for brands such as Google, Nike, Hershey’s, General Mills, Microsoft, NBC
Universal, Zinio, and Mini Cooper. Crowdsourced advertisements have gained popularity
in part to its cost effective nature, high consumer engagement, and ability to generate
word-of-mouth. However, it remains controversial, as the long-term impact on the
advertising industry is still unclear.[25]

[edit] Global advertising

Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export,
international, multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially
competing, business objectives that must be balanced when developing worldwide
advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing economies of
scale in the creative process, maximising local effectiveness of ads, and increasing the
company’s speed of implementation. Born from the evolutionary stages of global
marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different approaches to the
development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing local
executions, and importing ideas that travel.[26]

Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region.

The ability to identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its
success is how economies of scale are maximised. Once one knows what works in an ad,
that idea or ideas can be imported by any other market. Market research measures, such
as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insight into what
is working in an ad in any country or region because the measures are based on the
visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.[27]

[edit] Foreign public messaging

Foreign governments, particularly those that own marketable commercial products or

services, often promote their interests and positions through the advertising of those
goods because the target audience is not only largely unaware of the forum as vehicle for
foreign messaging but also willing to receive the message while in a mental state of
absorbing information from advertisements during television commercial breaks, while
reading a periodical, or while passing by billboards in public spaces. A prime example of
this messaging technique is advertising campaigns to promote international travel. While
advertising foreign destinations and services may stem from the typical goal of increasing
revenue by drawing more tourism, some travel campaigns carry the additional or
alternative intended purpose of promoting good sentiments or improving existing ones
among the target audience towards a given nation or region. It is common for advertising
promoting foreign countries to be produced and distributed by the tourism ministries of
those countries, so these ads often carry political statements and/or depictions of the
foreign government's desired international public perception. Additionally, a wide range
of foreign airlines and travel-related services which advertise separately from the
destinations, themselves, are owned by their respective governments; examples include,
though are not limited to, the Emirates airline (Dubai), Singapore Airlines (Singapore),
Qatar Airways (Qatar), China Airlines (Taiwan/Republic of China), and Air China
(People's Republic of China). By depicting their destinations, airlines, and other services
in a favorable and pleasant light, countries market themselves to populations abroad in a
manner that could mitigate prior public impressions. See: Soft Power

• See also: International Travel Advertising

[edit] Diversification

In the realm of advertising agencies, continued industry diversification has seen observers
note that “big global clients don't need big global agencies any more”.[28] This is reflected
by the growth of non-traditional agencies in various global markets, such as Canadian
business TAXI and SMART in Australia and has been referred to as "a revolution in the
ad world".[29]

[edit] New technology

The ability to record shows on digital video recorders (such as TiVo) allow users to
record the programs for later viewing, enabling them to fast forward through
commercials. Additionally, as more seasons of pre-recorded box sets are offered for sale
of television programs; fewer people watch the shows on TV. However, the fact that
these sets are sold, means the company will receive additional profits from the sales of
these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for product placement on
TV shows like Survivor.

[edit] Advertising education

Advertising education has become widely popular with bachelor, master and doctorate
degrees becoming available in the emphasis. A surge in advertising interest is typically
attributed to the strong relationship advertising plays in cultural and technological
changes, such as the advance of online social networking. A unique model for teaching
advertising is the student-run advertising agency, where advertising students create
campaigns for real companies.[30] Organizations such as American Advertising Federation
and AdU Network partner established companies with students to create these campaigns.

[edit] Criticisms
Main article: Criticism of advertising

While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social
costs. Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent
as to have become a major nuisance to users of these services, as well as being a financial
burden on internet service providers.[31] Advertising is increasingly invading public
spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation.[32] In
addition, advertising frequently uses psychological pressure (for example, appealing to
feelings of inadequacy) on the intended consumer, which may be harmful.
[edit] Regulation
Main article: Advertising regulation

In the US many communities believe that many forms of outdoor advertising blight the
public realm.[33] As long ago as the 1960s in the US there were attempts to ban billboard
advertising in the open countryside.[34] Cities such as São Paulo have introduced an
outright ban[35] with London also having specific legislation to control unlawful displays.

There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the content
and the influence of advertising. Some examples are: the ban on television tobacco
advertising imposed in many countries, and the total ban of advertising to children under
12 imposed by the Swedish government in 1991. Though that regulation continues in
effect for broadcasts originating within the country, it has been weakened by the
European Court of Justice, which had found that Sweden was obliged to accept foreign
programming, including those from neighboring countries or via satellite. Greece’s
regulations are of a similar nature, “banning advertisements for children's toys between 7
am and 10 pm and a total ban on advertisement for war toys".[36]

In Europe and elsewhere, there is a vigorous debate on whether (or how much)
advertising to children should be regulated. This debate was exacerbated by a report
released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in February 2004 which suggested fast food
advertising that targets children was an important factor in the epidemic of childhood
obesity in the United States.

In New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and many European countries, the advertising
industry operates a system of self-regulation. Advertisers, advertising agencies and the
media agree on a code of advertising standards that they attempt to uphold. The general
aim of such codes is to ensure that any advertising is 'legal, decent, honest and truthful'.
Some self-regulatory organizations are funded by the industry, but remain independent,
with the intent of upholding the standards or codes like the Advertising Standards
Authority in the UK.

In the UK most forms of outdoor advertising such as the display of billboards is regulated
by the UK Town and County Planning system. Currently the display of an advertisement
without consent from the Planning Authority is a criminal offense liable to a fine of
£2,500 per offence. All of the major outdoor billboard companies in the UK have
convictions of this nature.

Naturally, many advertisers view governmental regulation or even self-regulation as

intrusion of their freedom of speech or a necessary evil. Therefore, they employ a wide-
variety of linguistic devices to bypass regulatory laws (e.g. printing English words in
bold and French translations in fine print to deal with the Article 120 of the 1994 Toubon
Law limiting the use of English in French advertising).[37] The advertisement of
controversial products such as cigarettes and condoms are subject to government
regulation in many countries. For instance, the tobacco industry is required by law in
most countries to display warnings cautioning consumers about the health hazards of
their products. Linguistic variation is often used by advertisers as a creative device to
reduce the impact of such requirements.

[edit] Advertising research

Main article: Advertising research

Advertising research is a specialized form of research that works to improve the

effectiveness and efficiency of advertising. It entails numerous forms of research which
employ different methodologies. Advertising research includes pre-testing (also known as
copy testing) and post-testing of ads and/or campaigns—pre-testing is done before an ad
airs to gauge how well it will perform and post-testing is done after an ad airs to
determine the in-market impact of the ad or campaign on the consumer. Continuous ad
tracking and the Communicus System are competing examples of post-testing advertising
research types.