ED! • 4 Topic: Ads through the ages Tuesday, February 23, 2016 Sharon Szczecinski ED! • 5 Tuesday, February 23, 2016 A dvertising is the public promotion of a product or service. Advertisements, or ads, are all around us in our daily life and influence many of the decisions we make as consumers. Whenever you buy goods or services you are a consumer. Most advertisements have two goals: • The first aim is to inform potential customers and make them aware of a product and where they can buy it. • The other purpose is to persuade consumers to choose particular brands of products repeatedly. The aim is that customers will be loyal to that brand and continue to choose it when they need that particular product. PERSUASIVE METHODS Some of the techniques used to influence and persuade customers are: • Testimonials — getting an expert to recommend the product. • Lifestyle — trying to convince customers that buying the product fits into their ideal life. • Nostalgia — convincing customers that the product has been around for a long time and is trustworthy. • Exclusivity — claiming the product has something that no other product has such as a secret ingredient. According to Brendon Lewis, group account director at Marketforce, advertising is important because it “informs and educates people”. “There are many different forms of advertising across many different categories, used for different purposes,” Mr Lewis said, “but at the heart of all advertising is the provision of information to a target audience in order to inform and persuade. That can be to buy a particular brand of a good or service or behave in a certain way. Advertising is positive to the economy by driving demand of goods and services as well as to the community through public safety campaigns such as road safety and health. Without advertising people would be unaware of the choices available to them.” Advertising has existed since there have been products to sell. In ancient times it was often very simple. Sellers drew attention to their products by inscriptions on the walls of their shops and signs hanging above shop doorways. EARLY DAYS The first known advertisement is believed to have been in Ancient Egypt. The ad, found in Thebes, offered the reward of a gold coin for a slave who had run away. The Ancient Egyptians were an enterprising civilisation. They used papyrus to advertise their wares, and lost and found ads have been found in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. In Ancient China early advertisements took the form of posters, calligraphy signs and oral messages such as word of mouth. In Europe, many potential buyers of goods and services could not read. To overcome this, shops would use images such as a boot for a cobbler, rather than signs. BEFORE 1900 In medieval times, town criers and minstrels walked about the streets singing or calling out about products for sale at the weekly market. The invention of printing in the 1400s changed Selling a message Create an ad for a chance to win great prizes. The Design an Ad Competition is on again. Brainstorm ideas, use persuasive language and show off your creativity as you prepare an ad for a real company. Organised by The West Australian’s Media Education and ED! sections, the Design an Ad competition is free to enter and closes on July 1. Each company — Crunch&Sip, Department of Agriculture and Food, ProAcqua, RAC, Revolutions Transport Museum, Sizzler, SunSmart and Water Corporation — will award $100 to two primary and two secondary winners, and a selection of successful ads will be published in a special edition of ED! on August 23. For more information: education.thewest.com.au/competitions. DESIGN AN AD COMPETITION FOREST CRESCENT STUDENTS TRACK WHALE SHARKS. P2 P2 P3 POLLO AND WILL CATCH A TRAIN. BURRENDAH KIDS DISCUSS ADS. WINNING ENTRIES FROM OUR ANNUAL CONTEST ED! Throughout history people have looked for ways to convince others to buy or do something. Today we look at the art of advertising and travel back in time to where it all began. Brendon Lewis, from Marketforce. World War I poster to encourage men to become soldiers. Picture: Getty Images Papyrus was used for ads in Ancient Egypt. Illustration: Toby Wilkinson A LONG HISTORY HOW TO MAKE AN AD Marketforce’s Brendon Lewis said regardless of the situation, the steps in designing and delivering an ad were the same. 1 Define the objective(s) the advertisement is trying to meet. What are you trying to say in the ad? 2 Define the most relevant target audience that you need to reach and meet the objective. 3 Define the media channel or mix of channels that will most effectively and efficiently reach your target audience at their most receptive time and place. 4 Define the single most important thing (proposition) you want to say to your target audience, given their needs and wants. 5 Develop the creative solution that presents the idea in a unique and motivating way. 6 Create the ad and send it to the appropriate media. 7 Work out, evaluate whether the ad was successful against the objectives. how sellers advertised their products to possible customers. One of the first printed advertisements was a small poster advertising a book for sale in 1477. Weekly newspapers began carrying advertisements as far back as 1652. Advertisements began appearing in newspapers in England in the 18th century. Ads for books and medicines were also common. The French newspaper, La Presse, is believed to be the first to include paid advertising in its pages. Soon all newspapers were charging for advertisements, allowing them to extend their number of readers and increase profits. With the Industrial Revolution — the transition from handmade products to those made by machine in the 18th and 19th centuries — came the need to advertise goods and services. Before this era craftsmen were usually known by those people wanting to buy goods and only small amounts of products were made. Once mass production of goods such as soap and clothing began, the links between buyers and sellers were broken. Manufacturers began looking for people to buy the items they made. It was during the later part of this period that advertising agencies developed and billboards became common. SINCE 1900 In the early part of the 20th century companies started using publicity campaigns to advertise their products and other techniques, such as soap operas, were introduced. Soap operas, or soapies, began in the 1930s as a radio or television serial drama. The name soap refers to the soap and detergent ads which were originally shown during the shows. The idea was to advertise products to people listening at the time, mainly housewives. Advertising continued throughout both World War I and II, with governments often using advertising posters to attract recruits to the war effort or to agree or disagree with conscription. The introduction of television in Australia in the 1950s dramatically changed the way in which products could be advertised. In the 1960s focus groups were formed to ask people what they thought of new ads and the ways in which ads were made became more technical. Restrictions on advertising certain types of products such as alcohol and cigarettes have taken place in more recent times. Because of obesity in many Western countries, advertising of junk food — particularly to children — is also restricted. In the past 10 years advertising has evolved significantly to include the internet, social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and a variety of hand-held devices such as smart phones. TODAY These days advertising is a multimillion-dollar industry using many different forms of media to get across messages about goods and services. Some forms of media where advertisers promote their products include newspapers and other print forms, television, radio, mobile phone, social media and online advertising. Mr Lewis said advertising today was very different in many ways. “At its core, advertising is still a paid message to a target audience but today the communication landscape is vastly different,” Mr Lewis said. “The proliferation of advertising channels and today's savvy consumer makes producing and delivering relevant and motivating advertising quite a challenge. Gone are the days where a single television commercial could reach 80 per cent of your target audience. Fragmentation of media channels and audience behaviour means multiple messages communicated through multiple channels, all carefully engineered to hit the right person at the right time with the right message.” One of the best ads Mr Lewis has seen is for Volvo trucks. It is called “Epic Split” and features Jean-Claude Van Damme between two trucks. Mr Lewis said the advertisement clearly demonstrated the benefit of the product. DID YOU KNOW? Before 1900 goods sold in shops usually didn’t show who had made them — the manufacturer. People buying products usually looked for good-quality products at a reasonable price. Most foods were sold in bulk from barrels and tubs. Food manufacturers then got the idea of branding their products by putting them into packages. Some of the first products to be advertised in packaging were coffee, chocolate and tea. Today, the majority of products use packaging to advertise to consumers. Town criers sang or called out about items for sale in the Middle Ages. Picture: Getty Images Some of the most memorable ads create slogans or ideas which stick in people’s minds. Some of the most famous seen in Australia are: VEGEMITE We’re happy little Vegemites WEET-BIX Aussie kids are Weet-Bix kids AAMI INSURANCE Lucky you’re with AAMI AAMI INSURANCE Rhonda and Ketut CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA Slip, Slop, Slap YELLOW PAGES Not happy, Jan! WOOLWORTHS The fresh food people CADBURY FAVOURITES What to bring when you’re told not to bring a thing NUTRI-GRAIN Ironman food Today most product packaging has advertising on it. Picture: Gail Anthony STAND-OUT SLOGANS • More than $702 billion a year is spent on advertising throughout the world. • The cost of a 30-second ad during the US Super Bowl is $7.02 million. • In the US more than $21 billion per year is spent on advertisements directed at children. • Most watches displayed in advertisements are set to 10.10. • Fast-food companies often create brand awareness by sponsoring children’s sports, for example, Milo Cricket. • Ronald McDonald was first introduced in 1963. Ronald McDonald at a Christmas parade in Toronto, Canada. Picture: Creative Commons/Lindsey Armstrong FUN FACTS