The earliest impression I have had of advertising is that it’s simply a piece of content that serves the purpose of delivering information about a product, with the result being sales. This impression has evolved throughout the duration of my course. The ground reality remained unchanged, but I’ve come to realise and understand that advertising is a part of a bigger whole, that is marketing. The advertisers confront challenging questions like, how will this information be delivered? to whom will it be delivered? and even predict how the delivered message will affect the targeted audience. These aspects which I’ve learnt during the 3 years have been cultivated for many years and still rapidly developing.

This makes you wonder when the power of advertising was recognised. It is evident that the art of persuasion and different forms of promotion dates to at least 200 years, the reason being that there were goods to sell and a medium to talk them up. Harvesting attention for commercial purpose gained sudden popularity from the 1890s to the 1920s. The first recorded newspaper ad, 1849, was about a new method of measuring your head to find the perfect hat size. Such content was not treated as advertising but as a form of news since it was considered interesting to readers. (Mark Tungate, 2013). Through the course of the industrial revolution, the ad business took off. Literacy rates rose which prompted businesses to invest more in, what we now call, classified adverts. In 1848 the first ad agency was established in Philadelphia, by Volney Palmer. Although the J. Walter Thompson agency formed in 1864 holds the title of the oldest ad agency that is still in existence (Moriarty et. Al, 2015, p.43). Professionalism in the field rapidly began to take shape and positions of account executive, planners, art directors and copywriters, and concepts of brand names and brand identity were created. The early 20 th  century saw a rise in the popularity of scientific research techniques. The blend of art and science massively improved the effectiveness of advertising. Advertising then became something born out of strategic thinking that sought out to make consumers aware of a brand, company, or organization and influence them to do something.

Now with the digital medium a dialogue, from what used to be one-way communication, has been established between the consumers and the producers. The constant innovations in new media have aided businesspeople to expand their markets and reach new people. With the introduction of social media, there have been massive changes in the way that companies communicate and interact with their target audience. As the medium develops companies need to change the ways they market their products and services to stay in the limelight.

The framework of advertising involves concepts of strategy, message, media, evaluation and much more. These concepts cannot be summarised since each has a subdivision of its own which are too important to skim through. As Sam Hill stated, “advertising is rocket science” (Shimp, 2007, p. 238), it is a complex activity that is unpredictable and has factors that are constantly shifting. One little miscalculation and the millions of dollars put into creating the ad will become nothing more than a bathroom break during intermission.

Fast-forward to the present day, we’ve seen thousands, maybe millions of commercial messages. Some are subtle and some in your face. According to Friestad and Wright 1994, 1995 (cited by Dahleiz & Edenius, 2012) people began to construct mental short-cuts called the advertising schema to deal with the massive number of ads being displayed. This is an internalised system that we as consumers have developed to interpret advertisements as persuasive messages. Therefore, it automatically makes us suspicious of advertisements. It is observed that ads that activate this schema have reduced recall. Increasing research has been conducted since to figure out how this schema is activated and the development of new media acts as changing factors to the studies. It

was also noted that traditional advertising shows increased activation of the advertising schema and the non-traditional advertisements was perceived to have less persuasive intent. This is because in traditional advertising, the messages conveyed are largely nonpersonal messages. However, with the introduction of more interactive medium the non personal characteristics are being eliminated. In other words, advertisers need to keep up with the new medium and surroundings to not grow stale and seem repetitive. WOM, word of mouth is one such technique where the communication happens between business to consumer to consumer which recognises the importance of personal communication. They need to enhance the effectiveness of their messages by placing them in new surroundings and pay close heed to the message designed (Dahleiz & Edenius, 2012). People like content, people consume content that they enjoy but when content comes in the form of adverts, they show a dislike towards that piece of content hence they need to be discreet. Consequently, advertisers are faced with the pressure of coming up with creative, that is to say, original, different, novel and unexpected ways to capture attention and increase recall.

Creating an effective advertisement is not a walk in the park. It involves a lot of people working together towards a common goal, which could be brand awareness, increasing sales, repositioning etc. The copywriters, the art directors and the creative directors are in charge of coming up with the big idea, which includes the creative concept and crafting the execution idea. The copywriters handle the copy, the art director oversees the designs, and the creative directors manage the creative process. As Karen Mallia states in her book, creative truths (quoted by Moriarty et. al, 2015, p.242) “great work now takes a village—not just one or two geniuses” hence the rate of success will depend on the teamwork of the key players.

The copywriter’s horizon has expanded over time, in the past they used to only work for advertising agencies but now they work in all kinds of creative industries. They’ve gone from writing for print to writing for television, radio and digital platforms while also working for corporate communication and other fields beyond advertising. Their primary objective is to capture attention and put the message across. “The job of a copywriter is to use the right words to say the right things to the right people to get the right response. The process of identifying, improving, and capturing ideas is the dynamic behind copywriting, and hence they make a real contribution to the creative process” (Horberry, 2009, p.6). Their job description also involves bringing ideas to life. To simply put it, they take fragments of thoughts and give them meaning. They are very much involved in the process of coming up with the big idea, also known as the creative concepts. This big idea is then used as the central theme of the advertising campaign.

The creative process is inspired by a good brief. It specifies the basic elements of the creative strategy. This document goes by different names such as a creative platform or work plan, creative blueprint, or creative contract. It will act as a source of reference throughout the process. Information on strategy and positioning, objectives along other things like consumer benefits and mandataries will be mentioned. This brief is written collaboratively by the client and the agency planner where the client provides all the inputs from their side and the planner sets a guardrail for the creative process. The team does not get these ideas instantly, the creative process begins with briefing, research and several other brainstorming sessions that will eventually lead up to the finished product. During these brainstorming sessions, the team must explore all kinds of possibilities, they must talk about it, think about it, question it, position it, brand it, place it in a relevant or an irrelevant setting, let it stand alone, compare it to the competition, show before-and- after pictures, and twist it or bend it in as many ways as possible. This will then finally lead them to somewhat of a rough draft with many more steps to the finish line.

Copywriting is the foundation that the ad is built on. It is also essential that the copywriter and the art director remain on the same page to avoid confusion, in a sense one cannot work without the other. As stated earlier the copywriter must produce the copy based on the ideas collected from the brainstorming sessions. The visual element then completes the copy element. ‘Once the creative direction is decided upon the copywriter determines what needs to be said, how much copy will it take to say it, the tone and style appropriate to project the concept and how to adapt that copy to a particular medium” (Blakeman, 2014).

Then again you wonder, what counts as creative? Is an advert that brings in high sales considered creative or something, as stated before, original, different, novel, and unexpected considered creative? A successful advert is the combined efforts of both the creative department and the marketing department. If creative efforts fail, it is because the marketing plan failed. The public is bound to have different perceptions about ads but if the targeted audience considers it creative and brand recall is established, it can be recognised as a successful and creative Ad campaign. Therefore, it is important to know your audience and plan accordingly. Several studies have been conducted showing that various stages of the response hierarchy including cognitive, affective, and behavioural responses in consumers are impacted by advertising creativity (belch, 2012, p.264).

A marketing plan includes the 4-Ps that is the marketing mix. The marketing mix consists of the four Ps, i.e., price, placement, product, and promotions. Advertising is greatly involved in the promotional communication. Besides advertising, the promotional mix also includes public relations, direct marketing and sales promotion, out-of-home and transit, the Internet and social media, mobile media, and alternative media. Everything delt in this mix ensures the communication happens in such a way that the target audience gets the right message.

Integrated marketing communications has seen a rise in popularity in recent years. IMC is when marketers use various marketing tools to propagate their messages. The idea is to release consistent promotional activities/messages such as media advertisements, price, package design, direct- marketing efforts, publicity, sales promotions, websites, point-of-purchase and displays, to build a synthesised perception of a brand in the mind of the consumer. They even make sure the type of store where a product or service is sold fits the image of the brand that is being built (belch, 2012, p.9). All the activities and messages in an IMC plan leads to a bigger picture, they all have one unifying message and image and talks to a specific audience. The IMC approach starts with the customer. They begin with the customer and work back to the brand. “The Marketers learn about what media customers use, the relevance of their message to the customers, and when customers and prospects are most receptive to the message” (Arnes 2010). It focuses on long term goals that build brand image and brand equity and works toward building a brand-loyal consumer. The advertising plan is a natural extension of the marketing plan. In addition to marketing communication, advertising also has a role in the functioning of the economy and society, especially in places where the supply exceeds demand. In such economies advertising roles extends to create demand for brands. It also serves other social needs than just promoting sales. For years it has been both applauded and criticized not only for its role in selling products but also for its influence on the economy and on society (Arnes 2010).

Advertising has come a long way, from being something as simple as talking up a product to being part of Integrated Marketed Communication. It is more than just selling a product/service, it acts as a catalyst to build brand identity, A way to communicate with a company’s consumers, mould a trusting relationship with them and much more. It holds the power to incite various emotions through different appeals and strategies. In short, Advertising has had a pronounced effect on society as well as the economy by fostering social attitudes and laws.

References

Arens, C., Weigold, M. F., & Arens, C. (2010). Contemporary Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications. McGraw-Hill Education.

Belch, M. A., Belch, G. E. (2012). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education.

Blakeman, R. (2014). INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION 2ED: Creative Strategy from Idea to Implementation (Second ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Dahlén, M., & Edenius, M. (2007). When is Advertising, Advertising? Comparing Responses to Non-Traditional and Traditional Advertising Media. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 29(1), 33–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2007.10505206

Horberry, R. (2010). Brilliant Copywriting: How to Craft the Most Interesting and Effective Copy Imaginable. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.

Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N., & Wells, W. (2014). Advertising & MC: Principles and Practice, 10th Edition (10th ed.). Pearson.

Tungate, M. (2013). Adland: A Global History of Advertising. United Kingdom: Kogan Page.

Wu, T. (2016). The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. United States: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.