The Advertising Agency
Ad agencies are usually divided into departments, the number determined by the size and services of the operation. Smaller agencies contract with outside companies for the services of these typical ad agency departments:
Administration is the agency’s management and accounting operations.
Account management is typically handled by an account executive who serves as liaison between agency and client, keeping communication flowing between the two and heading the team o specialists assigned by the agency to the client.
The creative department is where the advertising is developed from the idea to ad. It involves copywriting, graphic design, and often the actual production of the piece, for example radio, television, and the Web spots.
The media department makes the decisions about where and when to place ads and then buys the appropriate time and space. The effectiveness of a given placement is judged by its cost per thousand (CPM).
Market research test product viability in the market, the best venues for commercial messages, the nature and characteristics of potential buyers, and sometimes the effectiveness of the ads.
Many larger agencies have public relations departments as well.
Types of Advertising
Institutional or corporate advertising. Companies do more than just sell products; companies also promote their names and reputations.
Trade or professional advertising. Typically found in trade and professional publications, messages aimed at retailers do not necessarily push the product or brand but rather promote product issues of importance to the retailer – volume, marketing support, profit potential distribution plans, and promotional opportunities.
Retailing advertising. A large part of the advertising we see every day focuses on products sold by retailers like Sears and Macy’s.
Promotional retail advertising. Typically placed by retailers, promotional advertising does not focus on a product but rather on a promotion, a special event held by the retailers.
Industrial advertising. Advertising products and services directed toward a particular industry is usually found in industry is usually found in industry trade publication.
National consumer advertising. National consumer advertising constitutes the majority of what we see in popular magazines and on television.
Direct market advertising. Product or service advertising aimed at likely buyers rather than at all consumers is called direct market advertising.
Public service advertising. Advertising that does not sell commercial products or services but promotes organization and themes of importance to the public is public advertising.
The Regulation of Advertising
The FTC is primary federal agency for the regulation of advertising. The FCC regulates the commercial practices of the broadcasting industry, and individual states can police deceptive advertising through their own regulatory and criminal bureaucracies.
The FTC and courts, however, do recognize that an advertisement can be false in number of ways. An advertisement is false if it does the following:
• Lies outright
• Does not tell the whole truth
• Lies by implication, using words, design, production device, sound or combination of these.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Advertising
It might seem reasonable to judge the effectiveness of an ad campaign by a subsequent increase in sales. But many factors other than advertising influence how well a product fares, including changes in the economy, product quality, breadth of distribution, and competitor’s pricing and promotion strategies.
A number of techniques may be used before an ad campaign is released. Copy testing - measuring the effectiveness of advertising messages by showing them to consumers-is used for all forms of advertising. Force exposure, used primarily for television advertising, requires advertisers to bring consumers to a theatre or other facility, where they see a television program, complete with the new commercials.. In recognition test people who have seen a given publication are asked, in person or by phone, whether they remember specific ads. In recall testing consumers are asked, again in person or phone, to identify which print or broadcast ads they most easily remember.. Awareness test make this same assumption, but they are not aimed in specific ads.
Trends and Convergence in Advertising
New and Converging Technology
Online advertising has matured over the last few years, moving well beyond static online billboards placed across the top (banners) or down the side (skyscrapers) of a Web page. Users today are likely to confront what the industry refers to as contextual advertising, that is, ads that automatically intrudes the users’ Web sessions whether wanted or not. Among this new breed of online advertising are the following:
Interstitial ads – images that appear on the screen and then disappear as users click one page to the next.
Pop-outs – ads that appear in smaller window at the border of the web page being read.
Extramercials – columns of ads content that slide down over the pages content.
Intermercials – attractive, lively commercials that run while people wait for the Web pages to download.
Targeted keyword buys – ads that pop up on the screen every time a user types in a sponsor’s name or other word or phrase.
Shoshkeles – animated objects, like car or Homer Simpson, that run across the screen.
Large rectangle’s – oversized ads that appear in the center of the page, over existing text.
Surround session – users are served a steady stream of ads from one sponsor during their entire visit to a site.
Text ad – ads that appear alongside search result that somehow relate to the search.
