Advertising techniques
Advertising does two main jobs. It tells people about something, like a product or a service and it also works to make people want to buy the product or service.
Ads do their jobs in many different ways. Many printed ads have headlines or boldly printed words that make people stop and read them. The headline may promise something that the reader wants, like a good price. Other headlines may carry the announcement of a new product. Some ads use slogans that are used over and over again .They are easy to remember and often used a catchy phrase. Sometimes slogans are not related to the product
Almost half of a newspaper is made up of ads. Local papers have ads of local companies, but nationwide newspapers also advertise products that are sold all over the country. Most papers are published daily, so new ads , like products on sale or movie openings can be placed every day. Newspapers sell advertising space in all sections of their paper. In most cases ads of products will be put in the section they are related to.
Display ads are big ads that can take up from a few cm to a full page . They have illustrations, headlines and lots of information on a certain field. Classified ads appear in a separate section of a newspaper . Most of them only have a few lines and list homes, cars for sale, furniture or other things that private people want to sell or buy.
Magazines
Magazines mostly appear all over the country and are used by national advertisers. In contrast to newspapers they are read when people have more time. They are kept for a few weeks or even months. Better printing quality and colour ads are among the advantages of magazines. Many special magazines are made for groups of people. The ads that appear there are especially for these groups. A computer magazine, for instance , may have many ads related to computers, printers or scanners.
Direct Mail
Direct mail consists of leaflets, brochures , catalogs or letters, that are mailed directly to people. Mail-order companies profit from this kind of advertising. Some mailing lists send information to all the people others only have special lists according to the jobs that people have or their age or income. Direct mail costs a lot of money, but advertising companies can be sure that they will reach the people.
Radio
Local advertisers place about 70 per cent of advertising on the radio. An advantage of radio is that people listen to programs while doing other things. In some cases radios are on the whole day. Commercials last about 30 seconds. Radio stations are more specialized in what they broadcast. One radio station offers pop music and has a younger listening audience; the other may broadcast classical music with older listeners. The ads can be chosen according to the group of people who listen.
Outdoor signs
Large colourful outdoor signs can easily catch the attention of by-passers. But these ads must be short and simple because viewers see them only for a few seconds. The main signs are posters, billboards and electronic displays. Billboards are owned by local companies that rent them to advertisers. Sometimes ads are painted on buildings. Electronic billboards have large displays where ads change very quickly. They are the most expensive kind of outdoor signs. Advertising Billboard at Times Square
Television
Television combines sound and moving images. It is one of the most expensive forms of advertising, but on the other hand it reaches a very wide audience. Advertisers buy time from TV stations to broadcast their commercials. This time is cheaper at times when fewer people watch TV, as in the early morning hours and gets very expensive during prime time evening shows. Sometimes advertisers pay a lot of money to get their ads on TV during special programmes, like the Olympic Games or the Super Bowl.
Infomercials have become very popular in the last few years. They are normal TV shows that focus on the sales of certain products. Details on how to buy the product (telephone numbers etc..) are repeated many times during the programme. Some TV stations also sell advertisers product placements. For example a brand of pizza can a car can appear in a scene of a TV show.
Internet
Internet advertising is becoming more and more important. Especially young people spend less time watching TV and more time on the Internet. The Internet has the advantage of being available to people around the world at all times.
Ads range from banners to pop-ups. Companies that spend a lot of money on advertising often create their own Internet site for a certain product. Web users are often asked to fill out a form that asks them about their daily routines, where they live, how old they are, how much they earn etc.. Companies use this information to find out what kind of people visit their websites. Sometimes ads are sent via email. Because a lot of unwanted emails (spam) are sent throughout the world many people don’t like this.
Mobile Advertising
Personal mobile phones have become an attractive advertising media to network operators, but are relatively unproven and remain in media buyers' sidelines. Marketers have realized the significance of tapping the cell phone as advertising tool due to the rapid growth of cellular industry growth. Survey shows the number of cellular users in year 2014 is touching 4.5 Billion people.
Audience Research
Identifying the audience for a magazine or newspaper, or determining who watches television at a given time, is a specialized form of market research, often conducted on behalf of media owners.
Press figures are slightly complicated by the fact that there are two measures: readership (total number of readers of a publication, no matter where they read it), and circulation (the number of copies actually sold, which is mostly independently validated).
Media Buyers
In the end, it is the media buyers who deliver the goods; by negotiating special deals with the media owners, and buying the best parcels of `slots' to achieve the best cost (normally measured in terms of the cost per thousand viewers, or per thousand household `impressions', or per thousand impressions on the target audience. The "best cost" can also be measured by the cost per lead, in the case of direct response marketing). The growth of the very large, international, agencies has been partly justified by their increased buying power over the media owners.
Types of Media and Their Characteristics
In terms of overall advertising expenditures, media advertising is still dominated by Press and television, which are of comparable size (by value of 'sales'). Posters and radio follow some way behind, with cinema representing a very specialist medium.
Print Out
In the United Kingdom, spending is dominated by the national & regional newspapers, the latter taking almost all the classified advertising revenue. The magazines and trade or technical journal markets are about the same size as each other, but are less than half that of the newspaper sectors.
Television
This is normally the most expensive medium, and as such is generally only open to the major advertisers, although some regional contractors offer more affordable packages to their local advertisers. It offers by far the widest coverage, particularly at peak hours (roughly 7.00–10.30 p.m.) and especially of family audiences. Offering sight, sound, movement and colour, it has the greatest impact, especially for those products or services where a 'demonstration' is essential; since it combines the virtues of both the 'story-teller' and the `demonstrator'. To be effective, these messages must be simple and able to overcome surrounding family life distractions especially the TV remote.
Radio advertising has increased greatly in recent years, with the granting of many more licenses. It typically reaches specific audiences at different times of the day—adults at breakfast, housewives during the day, and commuters during rush hours. It can be a cost-effective way of reaching these audiences—especially since production costs are much cheaper than for television, though the lack of visual elements may limit the message. In radio advertising it is important to identify the right timing to reach specific radio listeners. For instance, many people only listen to the radio when they are stuck in traffic, whereas other listeners may only listen in the evenings. The 24-hour availability of radio is helpful to reach a variety of customer sub-segments. In addition, it is a well-established medium to reach rural areas.
Cinema
Though national audience numbers are down, this may be the most effective medium for extending coverage to younger age groups, since the core audience is 15 to 35