Internet advertising is not the only new development; media like rockets and space ships, and approaches like guerilla advertising, are changing the advertising scenario. Advertising is reaching practically every surface that a mass of people are likely to see. It has become so intense and omnipresent that people rarely notice ordinary advertisements.
Advertising: A broad Overview
Advertising can be simply defined as a non-personal communication to a mass audience to deliver a message that persuades them to take some action such as buying a product. Branding-oriented advertising might not even require the audience members to take any action. Instead, it seeks to create an association between certain qualities and a branded product through repetitive delivery of the message.
The message might be in text (print media, skywriting), sound (radio, TV jingle) or moving pictures (TV, Web video). It identifies a product by name or brand and seeks to achieve the advertising objective through such means as a convincing presentation of benefits or covert messages delivered below conscious level that make the audience respond in desired ways.
Advertising has often been used in unhealthy ways. The proliferation of false claims led to the passing of regulations that seek to penalize advertisers making such claims. And the great power of advertising in persuading people to buy things they do not need or can even cause harm (such as tobacco and fattening food), has led to banning ads for certain products and public movements against advertising.
Advertising Media
Advertisements appear practically everywhere and most people do not even notice them. In addition to places that everybody expects to see them, such as newspapers, radio, outdoor billboards and TV, and now websites, they are placed on a surprising variety of places. Wall paintings, street furniture, shopping carts and their handles, airplane seat back tray tables, doors of bathroom stalls and backs of event tickets are some of the less obvious places where advertisements can appear. These are in addition to the public places such as train stations, sports stadiums, moving vehicles and skywriting which most people has come to expect as ad venues.
In fact, an exhaustive listing of the numerous of the numerous media can help a businessperson come up with ideas to reach the particular target group the business wants to reach. Whereas traditional media of business advertising has become prohibitively expensive, new media are appearing that are much less expensive. Even free advertising possibilities can be identified through a careful look at both conventional and emerging media.
Advertising Management
Advertising management has two key planning dimensions. Firstly, an effective advertisement that will create the desired response in the audience has to be designed and developed. Secondly, media that will deliver the ad to the intended target group at acceptable advertising costs will have to be selected. The media selection can actually influence the effectiveness of the ad and this too has to be considered.
The execution stage of the advertising management can be supported by a good advertising agency that can provide good copywriters to develop effective ad copy, and place the ads in selected media such as newspapers and TV. For Web advertising, there are many online ad brokers who can place the ads in relevant newsletters, Web portals, blogs and other targeted online publications. One can easily find an online ad broker using a search engine.
The small businessperson might not immediately think of the more unusual media, which might actually be the best ones for a particular business, and experienced advertising companies can help with media selection as well as placement. For example, direct mail advertising might work best for one business while event advertising might be best for another.
New media such as pay-per-click (PPC) and contextual ads offered by Google and other search engines can lower ad costs significantly. Contextual ads can also reach selected target groups far more precisely.
Advertisements that help businesses generate sales have changed dramatically from the original quaint copies to shocking and innovative modes used by guerilla advertisers. Ranging from hand distributed flyers through print, radio and TV advertisements to outdoor ads such as billboards, skywriting and other public displays, the advertisement scenario has been transformed dramatically.
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