Advertising Unit

Advertising Unit

TO DO:

#1. What is the purpose of Advertising?

Based on my own understanding, advertising is the promotion of a service or product to a targeted mass audience. The purpose is the pursued this audience to purchase or use the product being promoted.

#2. Which forms of advertising (web, TV, radio, print, billboard) do you find most effective? The least effective? Why?

I find TV commercials to be the most effective kind of advertisement. Everyone watches TV and whether or not that pay attention to the commercials, they unknowingly notice them by hearing or seeing them. The commercial remains on the sub conscience

I find billboard to be the least effective. When I am driving down the road, I never pay attention to billboards. You typically find billboards on highways and when people are driving down the highway, they are either on the phone or listening to the radio while going at least 60 miles per hour. People never ever notice billboards.

#3. What have you learned from the advertising industry after viewing these sites?

There is a lot of legal technicalities I didn't know about. I also though that an advertising agency was hired to create ads by companies and there is apparently a lot more to it then that. They are required not only to create ads, but to buy time and space for ads, do demographics, manage accounting and do marketing research.

#4. Does anything surprise you?

The only thing that surprises me is the numerous amount of jobs in the advertising business. I thought all advertising was about was business, creativity and art. To my surprise, there is also the consideration of market research, media selection, account management, administration, creative activity, and public relations. It takes all of these positions coming together to create an ad campaign.

#5. How well does this agency promote itself?

Selling yourself is a direct example of how well you will sell someone else's product. If you can sell yourself to a specific company then it is likely you can also sell their product.

www.fallon.com

Fallon promotes itself extremely well. The tell the inspiring story of how they got started in 1982 with only five people and very little money, and allow you to look further into the company at the work they have done. Their clientele is impressive as well.

www.richards.com

While I don't find their site very professional, the layout of the site is impressive. You can easily access the TV, radio, print and outdoor ads as well as Interactive, PR and Urban Marketing sections. They have a promising philosophy and impressive clientele.

www.carmichaellynch.com

They hook you in the beginning! As soon as you bring up the page you are greeted with an awesome site and an introduction to the company that provides background and company philosophy. They claim to push it until it hits the consumer in the head, heart and gut. They seem very self confident, which in this line of work is absolutely necessary.

http://www.jwt.com

J Walter Thompson doesn't impress me at all. The web site reminds me of something a child would make. They don't sell their selves well, you have to look around for the links to other parts of the page and it is overall unsatisfactory to me. This agency has been around for over 100 years and can't even sell itself through it's own site. The only ads I found of theirs that I recognize is their print ad for Nike and the TV ad for Lipton Brisk.

#6. If money weren't an object, which agency would you hire?

Carmichael Lynch without a doubt!! They are very aggressive, the web site is phenomenal and their portfolio is impressive. Fallon follows close behind in the ability to sell itself, then I would have to place Richards in third place and JWT in last.

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#4. RESPONSE REQUIRED. E-MAIL TO INSTRUCTOR. Pick any product imaginable and send me a description of a TV commercial you might do promoting that problem, but bringing in the "other thing" to make the ad conceptual and to give it punch. For example, I might be doing a spot for a small car featuring a guy whose girlfriend only felt romantic in the rain. He lives in Arizona. So he buys this car, and it's so small that she sits pretty close, and then he keeps taking her through drive-through car washes. "New car, gotta keep it clean," he says. But when she looks out at the water on the windshield and grabs him for a kiss (maybe doing a kind of a tango dip so he disappears down the seat), we know what the car wash is for. Whether this spot would work or not is entirely up to the script and the shooting, but the spot is driven by another "thing" (consider it a subplot, if you will).

Revlon colorstay lisptick-

A man in a convertable BMW drops off a young beautiful woman at her uptown loft. Before she gets out of the car she kisses him goodnight... She steps out and he drives off. Out loud she says to herself "his girlfriend will never find out"... then 'thinks', Am I wearing perfume? The commercial closes with "Revlon Colorstay Lipstick... Lipstick that won't kiss off."