CHANGES AND GROWTH IN ADVERTISING - A PARADIGM SHIFT

Varisha Rehman

IIIT, Allahabad

Introduction

Advertising, as we all know is an integral part of the promotional strategies of any organization. But, its form has witnessed unprecedented changes from the time of its inception till today. The amalgamation of technology with advertising methods gave birth to a new advertising era. Technology being the fastest route to development has led to dynamic changes and growth in advertising. Advertising agencies are promptly adopting these methods to cater to the audiences need and requirements. A simple example of this include Google search- where just at the click of the mouse you can find various nuances of advertising that includes audio and visual ads, pop ups, flash video, animation and RSS feeds. The table below highlights the significant differences between traditional advertising and digital advertising.

Early days of advertising

 One could easily associate the starting days of advertising with signs, slogans and messages being painted on the walls or at the back of the vehicles. Even before that the popularly and widely known town criers were in fashion. The merchants and the store keepers use to employ them for money to praise their goods at the market place or at a crowded street. The purpose then and till date remains the same- to draw the attention of the audience and to bring them to the store to buy a product. The emergence of print media brought a wave of revolution in the ad world. The newspapers were commonly used by the marketers for promoting their products. The national dailies and major newspapers started the concept of classifieds. The product- its features, price, offers were all stated in the classifieds-making it a quick response based ad .A survey in 2007 indicated that 20.80% revenues are generated by advertisements in classifieds (http://www.propertynews.com).The emergence of colored print media also heralds a new beginning. Ads became more attractive and appealing. Use of models and color in a newspaper ad was considered a major change; people started associating ads with themselves.

Technology took leaps and bounds ahead. Radio and colored TV sets brought a refreshing change. Radios because of its far reach, low cost, greater acceptability and coverage became an easy channel of advertising. On the contrary when television sets were introduced they broadened the scope of advertising. Blend of audio and video gave audiences a wider range of product and ease of understanding. Initially when television sets were introduced, they were not embraced by the people with open arms because of its high cost but as the standard of living of the people increased and the economy improved it became number one channel of communication and also brought with itself an era so called as celebrity endorsement. Famous cricketers and popular movie stars were all roped in for better publicity. People started associating ads with celebrities. The impact value was quite high. Initially it hit the market but later people demanded more innovation and creativity in the advertisement. That led us into another era of advertisement and communication – an era of digital advertising.

The internet advertising is of recent age. With the advent of internet advertising the dull, boring and lifeless traditional advertising has undergone dynamic changes. Advertising now encompasses new innovative, creative and brilliant methods. It has changed the dimension and face of advertising. Internet advertising is a wide term and it can be done using various options like billboard advertising, bandwagon advertising, pixel advertising, contextual advertising, keyword advertising, blog advertising and mobile advertising to name a few. EIAA annual Internet Ad Barometer report revealed that the internet advertising spending in 2009 is increasing.37% of the advertisers said that it is increasing a lot while 33% said that it is increasing a little- making it an overall 70%.In the same survey 47% of the advertisers agreed that internet advertising is essential and has a major role to play and 41% agreed that it is a growing medium.

Need of the hour

However one cannot rely only on internet advertising. Though it is a rapidly increasing medium today. But to capture the market and not to let your consumer flow into the hands of competitors one has to choose a perfect media mix for its products. Media mix is a basket where the advertisers has to intelligently choose among all the media options a perfect blend depending upon the need and requirements of the target audience. One cannot predict that only internet will be successful because by the time one gets up in the morning till the time he is back to bed, he is exposed to almost all the media options. So it will be unfeasible to sit glued to only one option of advertising because still today majority of the masses spend most of their time watching TV, listening to radio and reading newspaper. Ad spending by various mediums in 2008 is shown in the graph below. Television still continues to occupy 65% of the total ad spending. While a comprehensive package includes a combination of all the possible options available keeping in mind its impact, cost and reach.

Source: Nielson online

Conclusion

Advertising has been rightly said to be the essence of any marketing plan. In today’s era no product can survive without a full-fledged advertising campaign. Technology has brought enormous change in advertising not only in its presentation but also in its creativity, inception and presentation. With the coming era, advertising will definitely take an upsurge. Not only the advertisers but also the audience will witness huge change and growth. Every step taken by the past advertisers has paved way for the new age of advertising. The advertising method of today includes more sophisticated and technology driven methods. Today advertisers insist that to carve a niche for your product one has to strategically decide a campaign that includes a package of traditional and technology driven advertisement.