Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. The advertisements themselves are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user. HOW IT WORKS? Contextual advertising is targeted to the specific individual visiting a website (or page within a website). A contextual advertising system scans the text of a website for keywords and returns advertisements to the webpage based on what the user is viewing. The advertisements may be displayed on the webpage or as pop-up ads. For example, if the user is viewing a website pertaining to sports and that website uses contextual advertising, the user may see advertisements for sports-related companies, such as memorabilia dealers or ticket sellers. Contextual advertising is also used by search engines to display advertisements on their search results pages based on the keywords in the user's query.

Interactive advertising

Interactive advertising is the use of interactive media to promote and influence the buying decisions of the consumer in an online and offline environment. Interactive advertising can utilize media such as the Internet, interactive television, mobile devices (WAP and SMS), as well as kiosk-based terminals. Interactive advertising affords the marketer the ability to engage the consumer in a direct and personal way, enabling a sophisticated and dimensional dialog. This personal interaction can affect a potential customer's buying decisions, particularly in an e-commerce environment. Perhaps one of the most effective implementations of interactive advertising is viral marketing. This technique uses images, text, hyperlinks, Flash animations, and multimedia, passed from user to user chain letter-style, via e-mail. A notable example of this is the Subservient Chicken, an interactive marketing campaign produced by Burger King to promote its new line of chicken sandwiches and the "Have It Your Way" campaign. Interactive advertising is also assuming other avatars, such as online directories for brands. These directories presently perform a complementary role to conventional advertising, helping viewers recall and compare brands primarily seen on television. Response is mediated usually through forms and click-to-call technologies.

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.

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.

Advertising History

Archaeologists have found evidence of advertising dating back to the 3000s bc, among the Babylonians. One of the first known methods of advertising was the outdoor display, usually an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building. Archaeologists have uncovered many such signs, notably in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdoor advertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, and one found painted on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention of travelers to a tavern situated in another town. In medieval times word-of-mouth praise of products gave rise to a simple but effective form of advertising, the use of so-called town criers. The criers were citizens who read public notices aloud and were also employed by merchants to shout the praises of their wares. Later they became familiar figures on the streets of colonial American settlements. The town criers were forerunners of the modern announcer who delivers radio and television commercials. Although graphic forms of advertising appeared early in history, printed advertising made little headway until the invention of the movable-type printing press by German printer Johannes Gutenberg about 1450. This invention made the mass distribution of posters and circulars possible. The first advertisement in English appeared in 1472 in the form of a handbill announcing a prayer book for sale. Two hundred years later, the first newspaper ad was published offering a reward for the return of 12 stolen horses. In the American colonies, the Boston News-Letter, the first regularly published newspaper in America, began carrying ads in 1704, and about 25 years later Benjamin Franklin made ads more readable by using large headlines. In the United States, the advertising profession began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1841 when Volney B. Palmer set up shop as an advertising agent, the forerunner of the advertising agency. Agents contracted with newspapers for large amounts of advertising space at discount rates and then resold the space to advertisers at a higher rate. The ads themselves were created by the advertisers. In 1869 Francis Ayer bought out Palmer and founded N. W. Ayer & Son, an agency that still exists today. Ayer transformed the standard agent practice by billing advertisers exactly what he paid to publishers plus an agreed upon commission. Soon Ayer was not only selling space but was also conducting market research and writing the advertising copy. Advertising agencies initially focused on print. But the introduction of radio created a new opportunity and by the end of the 1920s, advertising had established itself in radio to such an extent that advertisers were producing many of their own programs. The early 1930s ushered in dozens of radio dramatic series that were known as soap operas because they were sponsored by soap companies. Television had been introduced in 1940, but because of the high cost of TV sets and the lack of programming, it was not immediately embraced. As the American economy soared in the 1950s, so did the sale of TV sets and the advertising that paid for the popular new shows. Soon TV far surpassed radio as an advertising medium. The tone of the advertising was also changing. No longer did advertising simply present the product benefit. Instead it began to create a product image. Bill Bernbach, founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach in New York City; Leo Burnett, founder of the Leo Burnett agency in Chicago, Illinois; and David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather in New York City, all came to prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s and led what has been called the,

• "creative revolution."

Bernbach's agency captured the spirit of the new age. Bernbach believed that advertising had to be creative and artistic or it would bore people. He also believed that good advertising began with respect for the public's intelligence. The ads his agency created were understated, sophisticated, and witty. For example, when Bernbach's agency picked up the account for the Henry S. Levy Bakery in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, the agency created an ad that entertained New Yorkers and provided fodder for many conversations. The ad showed a Native American eating a slice of the bakery's rye bread with the headline,

• "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's."

But it was the advertising for Volkswagen that made the agency's reputation. At a time when American cars were getting bigger and bigger and the advertising for them trumpeted that bigger was better, Doyle Dane Bernbach created a magazine ad that showed a small picture of the Volkswagen Beetle surrounded by a sea of white space with the headline,

• "think small." An equally unconventional ad carried the headline
• "lemon" beneath a photo of an apparently flawed Volkswagen. The ad's copy explained that
• "this Volkswagen missed the boat. The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and must be replaced…We pluck the lemons; you get the plums."

In an era of hype and bombast, the Volkswagen ads stood out because they admitted failure in a witty way and gave facts in a believable manner that underlined the car's strengths. This wit together with a conversational and believable style was a hallmark of the advertising created by Doyle Dane Bernbach and that style became highly influential. The creative foundation established by Bernbach and others has been critical to the success of contemporary advertising. The introduction of the TV remote control and access to hundreds of cable channels mean that today advertising must interest and entertain consumers or else they will simply use the remote to change the channel. New digital devices even threaten to make it possible to edit out commercials. The development of interactive television, combining the functions of a computer with access to high-speed transmission over cable lines or optical fibers, will likely enable consumers to select from a vast video library. Consumers will be able to determine not only when they watch something, but also, to a greater extent than ever before, what they will watch. Some industry observers believe that as consumers gain greater control over their viewing activities, they will find it easier to avoid advertising. No one can predict what new forms advertising may take in the future. But the rapidly increasing cost of acquiring new customers makes one thing certain. Advertisers will seek to hold onto current customers by forming closer relationships with them and by tailoring products, services, and advertising messages to meet their individual needs. So while advertising will continue to encourage people to consume, it will also help provide them with products and services more likely to satisfy their needs.

Categories of advertising

Advertising can be divided into two broad categories—consumer advertising and trade advertising. Consumer advertising is directed at the public. Trade advertising is directed at wholesalers or distributors who resell to the public. This article focuses on consumer advertising, the form of advertising that is familiar to most people. Consumer advertising can be further divided into national advertising and local advertising. National advertising is aimed at consumers throughout the entire country. National advertising usually attempts to create awareness among the public of a product or service, or it tries to build loyalty to a product or service. Local advertising is aimed at informing people in a particular area where they can purchase a product or service. Advertising to the public may also take the form of: institutional advertising, image advertising, informational advertising, cooperative advertising. Institutional advertising seeks to create a favorable impression of a business or institution without trying to sell a specific product. This type of advertising is designed solely to build prestige and public respect. For nonprofit institutions, such advertising helps support the institution’s activities: for example: by encouraging blood donations or cash contributions for the work of an organization like the Red Cross. A for-profit business has other reasons for improving its reputation rather than trying to sell a particular product. In some cases a large company may sell a diversity of products. As a result, there is more value and greater efficiency in building a brand image for the company itself. If consumers learn to have a high regard for the company, then they are more likely to have a favorable opinion of all of the company’s diverse products. Many advertisers prefer a strategy known as Image advertising. These advertisers seek to give a product a personality that is unique, appealing, appropriate So that the consumer will want to choose it over similar products that might fulfill the same need. The personality is created partly by the product's design and packaging but, more importantly, by the words and pictures the advertisements associate with the product. This personality is known as a brand image.

Advertisers believe brand image often leads consumers to select one brand over another or instead of a less expensive generic product. Brand image is especially important for commodities such as:

detergents, jeans, hamburgers, soft drinks, because within these product categories there are few, if any, major differences.

Informational advertising seeks to promote an idea or influence behavior. Sometimes known as public service advertising, it may try to discourage young people from using illicit drugs or tobacco, or it may encourage people to adopt safer, healthier lifestyles.

Cooperative advertising is an arrangement between manufacturers and retailers in which manufacturers offer credits to their retail customers for advertising. The credits, or advertising allowances, are based on the amount of product the retailer purchases. For example, if the retailer purchases $100,000 worth of a product from a manufacturer, the manufacturer’s cooperative advertising program may allot a 1 percent credit, or $1,000, toward the cost of purchasing an ad that will feature the product. In addition, some manufacturers will match the amount that the retailer spends, sharing the cost of the ad. In the United States antitrust laws enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ensure that these ad allowances are offered on equal and proportionate terms so that large retailers are not unduly favored over small retailers. Cooperative advertising is a form of local advertising because it directs consumers to local retail outlets.