History of Advertising

CONTENTS

• Advertising: 19th century to the 1960's
• Advertising - 1960's to the 1990's
• Advertising- 1990's to the present
• The future of advertising
• Videos on history of advertising

ADVERTISING: 19th CENTURY TO THE 1960's

Advertising has been around as long as people, in particular, those in commerce have have been communicating the existence of their business, service or product through communication methods other than direct oral communication. So it's been around for a very long time.
The origins of modern advertising - i.e where some sort of system was developed to enhance the procedure of 'of communicating the existence of .. business, service or product .. other than word of mouth' - lie in the 19th century with the introduction of paid advertisements in newspapers. By the beginning of the 20th century advertising consisted of professionals putting-together content, as well as brokering space for, advertisements.
The 1920's marked an important decade in the next phase of advertising: advertisement slots in electronic media: firstly, in radio, and later on, in television.

ADVERTISING - 1960's TO THE 1990's

The 1960's mark the second really big phase in the history of modern advertising. It was at this time that advertising legends such as David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, and Bill Bernbach (arguably the the three greats in the history of advertising overall) and others, were perfecting/working with/ introducing new ideas/business models that would transform advertising into a recognizable industry (thanks, to an important degree, to the new opportunities offered by TV). Ideas / business models such as:

The creative advertising agency
The creative advertising agency wasn't something new but it became better organized and, generally, bigger than before.

The creative team
Creatives (copywriters and art directors) had existed before but the art director was made an equal of the art director, and the two were united together to work in teams of two.

Planners / strategists
No longer did account managers have to take responsibility (or sole responsibility) for matters relating to the research, marketing and strategy sides of clients' campaigns. Account planners were introduced to assist (or take over from) the account manager, leaving the account manager to focus more on developing relations with clients.

The big idea
The marketing strategy behind a campaign must have a 'big idea' (marketing idea) on which the whole creative concept and the campaign in general rests. A 'big idea' that will engage the audience in an important way.

Really engaging the customer
The focus now is much more: talk to, not talk at, the customer. Research your customer. Know your customer. Engage your customer.
Engage your customers by talking their language.
Benefit to the customer. Another way of engaging customers is to offer something that the they will regard as a benefit to them.
Brand personality. And another way of engaging customers is to create brands that have personality - brands that stand out of the crowd in some unique, interesting way.

ADVERTISING - 1990's TO PRESENT

The 1990's mark the third really big phase in the history of advertising, due mainly to the pivotal role of the internet in all aspects of modern life. The advertising industry now is remarkably different in the following ways:

Technology approach
Digital media requires people in advertising, in general, to have a certain amount of knowledge about the how the technology functions overall (so as to be better able to manipulate the technology for the purposes of increased and more effective communication).

Audience approach
Audiences are now more disparate and harder to locate than they were in previous decades (one reason being that the new media platforms allow people to do a host of many different different kinds of activities). People in advertising, now, have to be a lot smarter in how they go about understanding who their audience is and what it it doing.
And it is now, increasingly, harder to grab and hold onto the attention of audiences - due, mainly, to increased competition for audience attention.

Marketing approach
Myriad of ideas. It's not enough, anymore, to have just one big marketing idea like before (in general, at least). Now it's necessary to have a host of different ideas (underlined by an over-riding theme) in order to meet the new pressures of audience diversity and the increase in competition for audience attention.
Marketing mix. In order to meet these new demands, the marketing strategy will often involve a wide range of communication approaches and channels, for example, ad campaigns backed up, perhaps, with PR, publicity events, brand sponsorship and so on.

THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING

Certainly, advertising is still in the midst of some important changes. There is much uncertainty about how things are going to pan out, for example, some people in advertising see advertising as going down a utilitarian route (offering a useful service to the audience) and others that it will carry on being about entertainment. Most people in advertising think that it will involve both (utilitarian and entertainment elements) but the real question is the form in which these will take.

One thing is certain, though: there are certain skills / abilities that people, in the advertising industry in general will have to have in order to do well.
Firstly, to have a good general understanding of the advertising industry in general, and to keep up-to-date with the latest advancements.
And, econdly, to be flexible (and adaptable): in particular, the ability to consider a wide range of different communication channels and approaches, and to work with a wide range of people with different skills and expertise in the business; and more.

VIDEO ON THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING