Advertising & New Media
Aims - To engage in current (academic & industry) debates, regarding the impact of new media on traditional advertising structures and practices
-To compare this impact to that of the late 19c, with the technological progress of colour printing, at the beginning of the (UK) advertising industry.
Objectives - Understand some key points in the history of advertising.
Understand the context (historical, political, economic and cultural) in which advertising emerged.
Understand some aspects of advertising strategy.
Speculate the implications of New Media on creativity & the role of the creative; you.
‘…Media that work not through persuasion or impressions but through engagement and involvement. If we stick with the old [Mass Media] model, we squander all the possibilities of the new media ecosystem ‘
(Sutherland, 2009) Rory Sutherland, president of the IPA and Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy UK
Back to the beginning...late 19c
To compare the impact of NM to the technological progress of colour printing, at the beginning of the (UK) advertising industry
Soap, Lever Brothers / Founders James Darcy & William Hesketh Lever / Today Unilever, 900 brands Ben & Jerry’s, Bertoli, Bird’s Eye, Brooke Bond, Comfort , Lux, Persil, Sunsilk, Sunlight, Surf... / Ubiquitous brand,part of the average consumers ‘mental furniture’ (Lewis, p57) / The corners of somebody's mind is the most expensive real estate (Hegarty, 2009)
The beginning of pre-packaging
1860s cereal ‘figured out how to print, fold & fill cardboard boxes mechanically. / John & William Kellogg / Henry J Heinz / Asa Candler 1890s bottle coca-cola
Soap was sold in long bars to grocers, who stamped (with stamp of maker) and sliced up. / Like lush
The first
I was the first to advertise extensively [and pre-package] a tablet of soap...the result was I lifted Sunlight soap to a class by itself’ (Lever in Lewis, 2008 p62) - Added ‘value’
Advertising and Colour Printing
Newspapers - Advertising boom aided by abolishment of taxes on newspapers 1855 & paper in 1861 / Press (newspapers) owes much to advertising / Press indispensable for advertising
Poster - Technological progress reproduction & colour printing, pictorial ads in magazines 1880s / Poster 1890s / Technology enabled contemporary paintings to be reproduced
Contemporary Art & Advertising
The soap men’s extensive use of contemporary paintings in their advertising is a case in point. (Lewis, 2008, p65) / Image used in Sunlight soap ad with a caption ‘So Clean’ / The New Frock 1889 William Powell Frith
Product placement clock & cup + brand loyalty
The Wedding Morning 1892 John Henry Frederick Bacon
Medicine, Chocolate and Soap
Medicine, chocolate and soap manufacturers were among the foremost advertisers (Lewis, 2008, p65) / Sunlight Soap among the first products to feature in an international advertising campaign.
International campaign
Lever’s achievement - ‘to convince people all over the world that they did not just want this product, they needed it / (Port Sunlight Museum, 2009)
Promotion boom, interactive?
Lever Bros. Switzerland F. H. Lavanchy -Clarke / Opening of new offices, organised a washing competition Lake Geneva,1889. / 2 x steamers, washer women, sunlight soap, large crowds and a banquet.
Influential schemes / Royal endorsement from 1892 ‘soap makers to Queen Vic / 1903 they began a wrapper scheme, offering their own soap in return / 1904 offer a gramophone + records for 750 wrappers & rolled gold watch for 4,000 (Port Sunlight Museum, 2009)
Capture the Children
¡‘One method beloved of advertisers ...was to capture the children. In 1890s, purchases of sunlight soap received free paper dolls with interchangeable outfits’ (Lewis, 2008, p67) / Schemes for Lifebuoy soap coupons for encyclopaedias. / Directed at mothers ensuring a lifetime of brand loyalty
Investing in advertising
Lever spent £2m first two decades of making soap. / 1899 Lever purchased a Philadelphia soap firm – owner Sidney Gross became a director. / ‘Gross was expert at picking the right artist for advertisements’ (Lewis, 2008,p69)
Art Direction
¡Gross suggested plantol should depict tropical climates & express the care that is exercised in refining oils. / A vision to disguise the forced slavery? / Palm oil was one of the main ingredients (pure vegetable soap).
Executive Creative Director
Collaborative creativity / Lever employed (international) expertise / Overseer of advertising / Constantly researching & studying the art form / Sent examples of (American) adverts across the company (colour magazine) creating discussion.
Innovative spaces, doors left open at stations. / Choosey, where advertised, avoided left-wing newspapers, / ‘firm known by...quality of medium in which it advertises’ (Lewis, 2008, p71)
Advertising Expertise
Lever amassed and was among innovators of advertising expertise / Advocated truth in advertising is an asset; falsehood in advertising is a liability. / (Hegarty, 2009)
Salvation
‘Many of his early ads emphasised that Sunlight soap would save women from drudgery’(Lewis, 2008, p74) / Answer: washing day toil, solution; Sunlight / Copy: a girl of 12 or 13 can do a large wash without being tired. / Ease a repeated theme
Publications & targeting audience
Sunlight soap and how to use it, spoke directly to working-class housewives. / Salvation of Sunlight, improves their life, leaving quality-time for romance.
Sunlight Almanac (annually) 1895-1900) / Woman’s World 470p illustrated book / High-feeling/emotive strategy / Power of suggestion
1893 Sunlight Ads
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News “home is to be the very dearest spot on earth, if the mother or wife brightens it with the sunlight of her cheerful smile…when things go right in the kitchen and laundry…the good housewife’s face is lit up” (Lewis, 2008, p77) / ’Another talked of a mother’s special responsibilities in the transmission of knowledge to her daughter…before her daughter is about… to be married’ / (Lewis, 2008, p77)
Advertising Strategy
Used different international agencies, particularly for American market. / Domestic and imperial markets the themes of Britishness suited all / Royal connections, national and imperial imagery / Context of thousands of ads trading on Britannia, Where the British flag flies, Dunlop Tyres are paramount’(1902) Lewis, 2008, p78
The British Imperial Mission
To civilize / No commodity aided more in this than soap. / Wash and clothe the savage and cleanse the great unwashed of the British working classes. / McClintock argues ‘served to justify the imposition of alien cultural values’ / In Britain advertising posters, packaging brought to a wide audience the notion of imperialism as benign (Lewis, 2008, p79) / Empire was celebrated on biscuits, cigarettes, soap, chocolate: part of the working class fabric
Creating customers
Victorians conquered the world and problem of corporeal aromas / Sanitary achievements drains, sewage & soap. / Advertisers made it their business to persuade each consumer of his or her hygiene problems.
The Lynx effect
“The message was clear, if one wished to gain or retain a partner, a job, a reputation and self esteem, one needed to attend to personal hygiene…sales skyrocketed” (Lewis, 2008, p81) / High-feeling strategy
The Psychology of Advertising
Advertisers, more than any other group of people, made hay with new understandings of human psychology in the twentieth century (Lewis, 2008, p81) / The Psychology of Advertising (1908) US, Walter Dill Scott / Edward Berneys, nephew of Freud Propaganda (1928) / Discrepancy theory – widespread
Discrepancy between self & ideal image (of self) / Publics leisure practices, bathing habits etc. were inferior to those depicted. / Lever Bros Lux ads by mid 20s said to preserve ‘soft, youthful lovely feminine hands’ + celebrity endorsement / ‘nine out of ten screen stars care for their skin with Lux soap. / America: soap operas (radio, 1930s) Procter and Gamble led the way, sponsoring O’Neils with ivory soap.
Art & Advertising
P & G promotions: held sculpture event at gallery for children. / Berneys wrote about it as a fine example, harnessing psychological motives, aesthetic, competitive, exhibitionist, and maternal / Strategy informed by sound psychology and enlightened self-interest (Lewis, 2008, p84)
Critics of Admass Culture
Boom in consumption / Highly criticised in interwar years ‘countless critics on the left – appalled by products of capitalism and mechanisation / ‘People degenerated into drones: docile bodies or blind mouths etc…unable to think beyond free market capitalism’ (Lewis, 2008, p84)
Advocates of Admass
Economic liberals, celebrated unfettered agency of the consuming individual / Good trade relations between countries reduces conflict. / Capitalism, commerce and consumption improves well being of more people. / Hegarty & Leverhulme
Role of advertising
‘Fundamentals of honest business, will continue to advance humanity to brotherhood…honesty in advertising …is a cardinal principle in your country and in mine…the advertiser…is building for those who follow after him. It should be the same with nations’ - Leverhulme speech NY (1923)
New Media Model
Shift (Spurgeon, 2008) / Mass to My media / More personalised / More targeted (mobile) / Also involves audience: / (a) voluntarily passing around ads (virals) / (b) creating – spoofs or filming events
Viral Advertising
One distinction between old & new media / Voluntary viewings (video viewings online) / Forced viewings (TV or Print) / Definition of Viral / ‘unpaid peer-to-peer communication of [provocative] content originating from an identified sponsor using the Internet to persuade or influence an audience to pass along the content to others’. Southgate, et al, 2010, p350.
Trevor Beattie: Ideas
Biggest idea since the wheel > the internet / Enables lots of small ideas to circulate / ‘that combination of a trillion little ideas is in itself the biggest idea there is...I think we are at the most interesting point of communications history ever... / Digital media > convergence of media opens up opportunities for creatives. / E.g Moon
Viewer-generated content
Case-study Coke-Mentos - Viewer-generated advertising worth US$10 million to Mentos ‘more than half its annual advertising budget’ (Spurgeon, 2008, p1)
New media threatens the top-down communication model / Audiences are actively managing media culture
10 reasons why this is the best time to be in advertising
An audience with Sir John Hegarty, 25.3.10
No. 1 Agencies can innovate
NYC tourism campaign
The idea: character of NYC : street culture, in particular street musicians.
linked to the promotion 'Dig Out Your Soul'.
New album tracks were released to played by NYC street musicians video recorded > YouTube.
Agency (BBH) was able to collaborate directly with NYC street musicians.
The Third Screen
Mobile phones will soon become the greatest tool for persuasion, more so than any other medium for advertising. (Fogg, 2003) / Fastest growing markets in the creative industries (Mobile Learning Conference 2009 1st Dec, 2009, London)
What is the impact of new media ?
On the advertising agency / Industry debate.
“Structuring the company to be social from the inside is necessary if it is to take full advantage of the new approaches. Patrick (2009) http://blog.mashupevent.com/
The Role of Social Search in the Marketing Mix Seminar IPA 25/02/09 – mash up event
