Essential truths

Account planning exists for the sole purpose of creating advertising that truly connects with consumers, according to Jon Steel. Planning has made its move to the forefronts of larger agencies in the US, thanks in part to Jon Steel, but for some it is still considered a luxury. In many accounts, the account directors will claim the development of strategy. In case there's no account planner on the account, it's a team effort; client, account director and creative director. It must be clear where account planning is creating an advantage. Account planning adds context, a wider perspective, guidance and opinion to advertising development. Having an account planner involved in the account has led to more integration within the agency, which has resulted in better teamwork in trying to combine the needs of the client, the market and the consumer. Account planners stimulate discussions about things that were overlooked before, such as, purchasing decisions, brand-consumer relationship and specific circumstance evaluation. The main change inflicted on advertising by account planning is, to approach every marketing challenge, starting with the consumer. Traditionally qualitative research has been conducted via focus groups, but it is the Jon Steel style of focus group - focus groups in a creative way - that has changed the way some agencies apply this kind of research. “The best research and strategic thinking in the world is absolutely worthless without a creative executions of similar stature,” Steel said. The goal, in turn, is to create and maintain a meaningful relationship with the consumers. In present day society, there is no doubt that consumers around the world have knowledge and interest in advertising. It is something that has become part of our society and it possesses a "means of contributing meaning and values that are necessary and useful to people in structuring their lives, their social relationships and their rituals." However, there is a difference among cultures concerning advertising. One such difference is between the UK and the US. While in the UK there is a high approval for advertising among consumers, consumers in the United States believe that advertising insults their intelligence. There are seven goals that have been achieved in the UK thanks to account planning:

• 1) Having a planner on the account has led to more integration within the agency and better teamwork in trying to combine the needs of the client, the demands of the market, and the expectations of the consumer.
• 2) The planner has brought an added dimension of understanding to the process of developing ads, by stimulating discussion about: purchasing decisions, the brand consumer relationship, and how the advertising is working in specific conditions.
• 3) Helping to win new business: by instilling confidence in the prospective client as a result of a comprehensive and disciplined approach.
• 4) Defining more tightly-focusses strategies: the result of an enhanced understanding of the consumer.
• 5) Stimulating creative development: the result of more productive contrast between the creative department and the consumer.
• 6) Helping to sell ads: by explaining the way they work.
• 7) The quality and creativity of advertising in the UK has grown in line with account planning, thus proving that the function has helped, rather than hinder this trend.

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. When applied to the subset of website-based advertisement placements, Internet marketing is commonly referred to as Web advertising (also Webvertising) and Web marketing. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. In 2008 The New York Times working with comScore published an initial estimate to quantify the user data collected by large Internet-based companies. Counting four types of interactions with company websites in addition to the hits from advertisements served from advertising networks, the authors found the potential for collecting upward of 2,500 pieces of data on average per user per month.

Classified advertising

Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, e.g. free ads papers or Pennysavers. Classified advertising differs from standard advertising or business models in that it allows private individuals (not simply companies or corporate entities) to solicit sales for products and services.

Classified advertising is usually textually based and can consist of as little as the type of item being sold and a telephone number to call for more information. It can also have much more detail, such as name to contact, address to contact or visit, a detailed description of the product or products ("pants and sweaters, size 10" as opposed to "clothing", "red 1996 Pontiac Grand Prix" as opposed to "automobile"). There are generally no pictures or other graphics within the advertisement, although sometimes a logo may be used.

Classified advertising is called such because it is generally grouped within the publication under headings classifying the product or service being offered (headings such as Accounting, Automobiles, Clothing, Farm Produce, For Sale, For Rent, etc.) and is grouped entirely in a distinct section of the periodical, which makes it distinct from display advertising, which often contains graphics or other art work and which is more typically distributed throughout a publication adjacent to editorial content.

Periodicals Publications

A periodical publication, or just periodical, is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly. Other examples would be a newsletter, a literary journal or learned journal, or a yearbook. These examples all are related to the idea of an indefinitely continuing cycle of production and publication: newspapers plan to continue publishing, not to stop after a predetermined number of editions. A novel, in contrast, might be published in monthly parts, a method revived after the success of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. This approach is called part-publication, particularly when each part is from a whole work, or a serial, for example in comic books or manga. It flourished in the middle of the nineteenth century, for example with Abraham John Valpy's Delphin Classics, and was not restricted to fiction. The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is to periodical publications what the ISBN is to books: a standardized reference number.

Display Advertising

Display advertising is a type of advertising that typically contains text, logos, photographs or other images, location maps, and similar items. In periodicals, display advertising can appear on the same page as, or on the page adjacent to, general editorial content. In contrast, classified advertising generally appears in a distinct section, was traditionally text-only, and was available in a limited selection of typefaces. Display advertisements are not required to contain images, audio, or video: Textual advertisements are also used where text may be more appropriate or more effective. An example of textual advertisements is commercial messages sent to mobile device users. One common form of display advertising involves billboards.

aStore

aStore is an Amazon.com affiliate product which website owners can use to create an online store on their site. The aStore interface is intended to be accessible to those without programming skills, using configuration pages to customise the content and design. The store does not allow website owners to sell their own products directly. Website owners pick products from Amazon's store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers.

Advertising Age

Advertising Age (or AdAge) is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. Today, its content appears in a print weekly distributed around the world and on many electronic platforms, including: 1. AdAge.com daily e-mail newsletters called 2. Ad Age Daily Ad Age's Mediaworks and 3. Ad Age Digital; weekly newsletters such as Madison & Vine (about branded entertainment) and 4. Ad Age China; podcasts called Why It Matters and various videos. AdAge.com also features a bookstore and a number of blogs, some created by the publication's editorial team, others, such as Small Agency Diary are created by members of the Ad Age community. Among its notable columnists is Simon Dumenco as the "Media Guy". AdAge's parent company also publishes a monthly magazine called Creativity, about the creative process, which has its own website 1. Adcritic.com featuring what its editors believe to be the best video, print and interactive ads. The editorial component of AdAge is based in New York City. Its parent company, Detroit-based Crain Communications, is a privately held publishing company with more than 30 magazines, including: TelevisionWeek Creativity Crain's New York Business Crain's Chicago Business Crain's Detroit Business Crain's Cleveland Business Automotive News. The corporate and circulation component of TelevisionWeek, as with all of the Crain publications, is based at Crain's headquarters in Downtown Detroit.