61 The role of advertising in society

Advertising is the paid promotion that uses strategy and messaging about the benefits of a product or service to influence a target audience’s attitudes and/or behaviors. Between online, television, radio, and print platforms, the average American sees hundreds, even thousands of advertisements daily.

Although many consumers find them annoying, advertisements play a prominent role in shaping opinions about everything from products to politics. A Forbesarticle (2012) stated: “Advertising plays the same role in your media diet that vegetables play in your regular diet; most of us would prefer to skip that course and go straight to dessert. But, just like veggies, advertising plays an important role in sustaining a body; in this case, a diverse body of content” (para. 1). Advertising heavily supports many institutions, including news media outlets, the television industry, search engine companies, and social media websites. For example, advertising contributes up to 80 percent of revenue for newspapers and therefore is critical to maintaining the circulation of the press (Newspaper Association of America, 2014).

The advertising industry is also lucrative. According to eMarketer (2016), the United States spent approximately $190 billion on advertising in 2015. About a third of that figure went to television advertisements, and another third went to digital advertising. With its economic and cultural function in society, the advertising industry has an expansive reach.

62 Job responsibilities in advertising

The Advertising Educational Foundation (2016) defines several broad categories for jobs in the industry. Account managers serve as a liaison between the client and the advertising agency. They conduct research and oversee creative aspects, production, and more. Account planners are responsible for presenting information about the consumer. They analyze audiences and figure out ways to achieve brand loyalty through advertising.

Those in the creative department are responsible for developing the advertising message and images. They also pitch the advertising plan to clients. Employees in the media department work on advertising placement strategies, media buying, and analyzing consumer media behaviors. These roles are diverse but also interdependent in that they all contribute to the advertising process.

63 Advertising campaign model: Social marketing

Numerous conceptual frameworks and models help to explain the design of advertising campaigns. This book will focus primarily on the social marketing model. This framework describes how to design information campaigns that focus on improving social welfare, such as health and environmental campaigns. However, Atkin and Rice (2012) state that it is appropriate to apply the social marketing model to consumer advertising campaigns because they share similarities with health and environmental campaigns. The primary difference between consumer advertising campaigns and information campaigns is the goal.

The social marketing model identifies five steps in the campaign process: planning, theory, communication analysis, implementation, and evaluation. In the planning stage, advertisers establish the message goals. This is a critical step in the campaign process as it informs the strategies and tactics. What kind of response do you want from the audience? What do you want them to do, or how do you want them to feel?

In the theory step, advertisers try to determine the best way to achieve the campaign objectives. Perloff (2010) states, “Theories suggest a host of specific campaign strategies, appeals, and ways to modify projects that aren’t meeting stated objectives” (p. 332). This step is also when advertisers complete a creative brief that further outlines the overall strategy. (There will be more on this in a later section.) There are two types of strategies: product-oriented and consumer-oriented.

The product-oriented strategy focuses on highlighting specific benefits related to the product or service (Felton, 2013). One example is commercials for paper towels that compare the product’s specific features, such as absorbency and strength, to those of competitors. These commercials often show side-by-side shots of people using the featured brand and the competing brand, with the featured brand as the better option. Other product-oriented strategies may focus on something that can be found only at a particular company or under a specific brand. McDonald’s occasionally uses this strategy in its advertisements, reminding viewers that they can purchase America’s favorite french fries only at its restaurants.

Another broad advertising strategy connects the audience’s daily experience or lifestyle with the advertised product or service. This is referred to as the consumer-oriented strategy. Advertisers frequently use this strategy for branding purposes. The idea is to associate the company with a particular lifestyle, personality, or characteristic that the audience identifies with or aspires to. Car companies often use consumer-oriented strategies in their commercials. Rather than focusing on the specific features of the car, consumer-oriented commercials might simply show an attractive person driving along a winding road.

The luxury motor company Lincoln recently used this strategy in a campaign. The commercials featured actor Matthew McConaughey simply talking and driving the vehicle. There is very little mention of the product features; however, the advertisements associate McConaughey’s wealth, talent, confidence, and attractive physical features with the car. In doing so, they help to shape Lincoln’s brand identity and personality.

You do not have to choose one strategy over the other. Advertising essentially involves persuading people to act or feel a certain way about the message topic. Therefore, incorporating several ideas and strategies may increase the odds of accomplishing the goal.

The third step in the social marketing model is communication analysis. Here, advertisers conduct market research and audience analysis to test the campaign idea. This step helps the advertisers further craft their strategies. For example, if you are designing a campaign to convince the target audience to try a local cuisine, you want to examine perceptions of the food prior to launching the campaign. You can do this through focus groups or audience surveys.

The next step involves implementing the campaign. This is done by carefully considering the four Ps of marketing: product, placement, price, and promotion. Click on this article for more information on the four Ps.

The last step in the social marketing model is evaluation. This provides an opportunity for the campaign designers to see whether their efforts succeeded in accomplishing the stated goals. One way to do this is through evaluating sales after the launch of the campaign, tabulating media impressions or audience attendance at events, or conducting exit focus groups.

64 Creative brief

Before they begin the design process, advertising professionals work on explaining and outlining the advertising plan in a creative brief. This is a document for the creative team, the advertising director, and the client that gives a clear objective for the copy material and explains the overall concept of the campaign. The creative brief is like a game plan—without it, the advertisement may not be successful. You do not have to use a particular writing style, such as AP style, when completing the creative brief. However, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and concise writing are still important. Here are several broad categories to consider when completing the creative brief.

Key consumer insight

The key consumer insight demonstrates a clear understanding of the consumer’s general behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes as they relate to the message topic. It also considers general opinions and thoughts about the subject matter. Let’s say you’re developing a creative brief for a cookie brand. Market research and careful audience analysis can reveal key insights into consumer behaviors, such as the fact that many consumers believe that so-called healthy cookies do not taste as good as their high-calorie, sugar-filled counterparts. This knowledge will help you as you design your advertisement.

Advertising problem

The phrase “advertising problem” does not refer to addressing a problem within the advertisement itself, or challenges in advertising to the key audience. The term refers to the product’s biggest consumer-related stumbling block. In the cookie example above, the advertising problem is that consumers face a choice between buying great-tasting cookies that are loaded with calories and sugar and buying ones that are low in sugar and calories but don’t taste as good. The consumer insight can inform or help you to come up with the advertising problem. The advertising strategy should address a consumer need or consumer-related problem. Without this, the advertisement will appear pointless.

Advertising objective

The advertising objective explains the intended effects of the promotion on the target audience and  clearly articulates the overall goal. The goal is not simply to persuade the audience. Think about how you want the audience to feel or believe about the featured product or service. Or, what do you want them to do in response to seeing the advertisement? An example of the objective for the cookie advertisement might be to convince cookie lovers that the featured product is a healthy option that doesn’t compromise rich, fulfilling taste.

Target consumer

The target consumers are people you specifically want to communicate the message to. In order to fully understand the audience, consider their psychographics, or the analysis of their lifestyles and interests. Also include information about demographics, as this factor influences the audience’s day-to-day experiences. Clarify why you’ve chosen this particular audience. Why would these people be attracted to the featured product or service? How would they help the organization achieve its goals? What are the benefits of targeting this particular group? Answering these questions will help justify the selection of the target audience.

Competition

In this section of the creative brief, perform a complete assessment of the competition that considers strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, examine the competitor’s history, products, services, brand, and target audiences. Analyzing key competitors will help you articulate your company’s or product’s marketplace niche, which is very important. You need to establish how your product or company stands out from similar products or companies.

Key consumer benefit

The key consumer benefit describes what the consumer would gain from using the advertised product or service. This section also discusses how the product or service solves the advertising problem laid out earlier in the creative brief. Narratives, testimonials, and sometimes research findings can be used as support in the actual advertisement, which helps enhance its persuasiveness.

Support

The support section explains the validity of the proposed advertising plan. It makes a case for why the campaign will motivate the audience or make them believe that the claims are true. This is particularly important because in order to secure the advertising account, you need to convince your client or high-level executives that the plan will work. Include evidence from third-party sources such as external research studies or polls. Also include feedback from focus groups to persuade the client that the advertising plan is effective.

Other categories to consider

Some creative briefs might include a section called tonality. This explains the desired feel or attitude of the advertising campaign, such as “hip,” “classy,” “fun,” “flashy,” or “modern.” You could also include a description of the advertisement’s visual elements, or the creative mandatories. This section should provide a detailed explanation of the images, slogan, logo, and other visual factors so that the client can imagine how the advertisement will look. The creative team usually presents a sample advertisement to the client in the pitch presentation.

65 Copywriting

After completing the creative brief and receiving approval from the client, it is now time to develop the advertisement. A large part of this process involves copywriting. Copywriting puts together the headlines, subheadlines, and images included in the advertisement. It uses persuasive communication to influence the target audience. It also helps to create the advertisement’s call to action, logo, and slogan.

The AIDA model is a popular framework used in designing advertising copy. The acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Good advertising copy should effectively grab the audience’s attention through words and/or imagery. This can be  challenging. Because consumers may see thousands of advertisements daily, capturing their attention needs to be informed by strategy.

After getting the audience’s attention, the copy should maintain the focus of the consumer by generating interest. This involves creating messages that are relevant to the target audience (Altstiel and Grow, 2016). The AIDA model states that the copy should provoke a desire for the advertised product or service. When the desire is instilled, the copy should then motivate the audience to act or perform the call to action in the advertisement. This could be buying the product, visiting the organization’s social media page, volunteering, or attending an event. The call to action should be memorable. For further information on the AIDA model, click on this article.

66 References

Advertising Educational Foundation. (2016). Advertising career possibilities. Retrieved from: http://www.aef.com/industry/careers/9000

Altstiel, T. & Grow, J. (2016). Advertising creative: Strategy, copy, and design. Washington, DC: Sage Publications.

Atkin, C.K. & Rice, R.E. (2012). Theory and principles of public communication campaigns. In R.E. Rice and C.K. Atkin (eds.), Public communication campaigns (pp. 3-19). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.

eMarketer. (2016). US spending on paid media expected to climb 5.1% in 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Spending-on-Paid-Media-Expected-Climb-51-2016/1013739

Felton, G. (2013). Advertising: Concept and copy. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Newspaper Association of America. (2014). Public policy: Advertising. Retrieved from: http://www.naa.org/Public-Policy/Government-Affairs/Advertising.aspx

Perloff, R.M. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century. New York, NY: Routledge.

Thierer, A. (2012). We all hate advertising, but we can’t live without it. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamthierer/2012/05/13/we-all-hate-advertising-but-we-cant-live-without-it/#3bc70705e1c7