Advertising - How To Succeed 4

History: Part 2

The dawn of the 1960’s witnessed the transformation of Advertising into a modern and dynamic phase in which creativity became the watchword. The result was advertisements that left the consumer captivated. The Volkswagen ad campaign contained some eye-catching headlines, such as Lemon (to describe the unique shape of the car) and, most significantly, was the title Think Small. Such copy lines were at the vanguard of a new approach in Advertising called positioning, or alternatively, the unique selling proposition. This style of marketing was designed to instill, in the mid of the reader, the fact that a particular brand was synonymous with a unique idea. This era of American advertising was called the Creative Revolution, and some of the most innovative and far-reaching campaigns were conceived in this hugely creative era.

The period of the late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s was notable for the introduction of cable television and, of particular importance, the birth of MTV ( which was an American cable television network whose proposition was to play music videos, unique at that time, hosted by individuals known as VJs, or video jockey). By means of the birth of the music video, MTV was able to pioneer a new style of advertising, viz. the consumer focuses on the channel to actually hear the message incorporated in the advertising rather than it simply being “there if you were interested”.

A further manifestation of cable channels was the creation of satellite television which, in turn, spawned a plethora of channels devoted solely to advertising. The best examples include QVC (which meant quality, value, convenience, it was at the forefront of televised home shopping), Home Shopping Network (which is a 24-hour shopping channel available on cable and satellite), and ShopTV.

The birth of the internet offered virtually unlimited marketing opportunities and presented advertisers with a wealth of new possibilities. Such an upsurge in internet activity led to the dot-com boom of the 1990’s. One result of this was that advertising alone was the sole revenue generator in many companies who incorporated such loss-leaders as free internet access and coupons (which is a ticket that can be exchanged for a price discount following the purchase of a product).

In the early 2000’s, the giant search engine Google initiated a style of advertising that emphasised unobtrusive ads with relevant text with the aim of assisting the user. This opened the way for a multitude of other websites to follow suite. The result was the birth of interactive advertising (which uses interactive media in order to present the product or service in front of the consumer)

Although there have been huge changes in the various forms of media available in the last century, the actual share of advertising spending relative to GDP has been almost constant. In 1925, it was about 2.9% when the main forms of advertising were simply newspapers, magazines, and posters. However, by 1998, the share was still only about 2.4% whereas, by that time, television and radio were the advertising mainstay.

Advertising – How To Succeed