The First Advertising Agencies

However, it was not until the emergence of advertising agencies in the latter part of the nineteenth century that advertising became a fully fledged institution, with its own ways of working, and with its own creative values. These agencies were a response to an increasingly crowded marketplace, where manufacturers were realizing that promotion of their products was vital if they were to survive.

As the economy expanded during the 19th century, advertising grew alongside. In the United States, the success of this advertising format eventually led to the growth of mail-order advertising.

In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages, allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and the formula was soon copied by all titles. Around 1840, Volney B. Palmer established the roots of the modern day advertising agency in Philadelphia. In 1842 Palmer bought large amounts of space in various newspapers at a discounted rate then resold the space at higher rates to advertisers. The actual ad - the copy, layout, and artwork - was still prepared by the company wishing to advertise; in effect, Palmer was a space broker. The situation changed in the late 19th century when the advertising agency of N.W. Ayer & Son was founded. Ayer and Son offered to plan, create, and execute complete advertising campaigns for its customers. By 1900 the advertising agency had become the focal point of creative planning, and advertising was firmly established as a profession. Around the same time, in France, Charles-Louis Havas extended the services of his news agency, Havas to include advertisement brokerage, making it the first French group to organize. At first, agencies were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers. N. W. Ayer & Son was the first full-service agency to assume responsibility for advertising content. N.W. Ayer opened in 1869, and was located in Philadelphia.

At the turn of the century, there were few career choices for women in business; however, advertising was one of the few. Since women were responsible for most of the purchasing done in their household, advertisers and agencies recognized the value of women's insight during the creative process. In fact, the first American advertising to use a sexual sell was created by a woman – for a soap product. Although tame by today's standards, the advertisement featured a couple with the message "The skin you love to touch".

Advertising agencies sold themselves as experts in communication to their clients - who were then left to get on with the business of manufacturing. Copywriters emerged who – for a fee – would craft a series of promotional statements. Many of these men were aspiring novelists, or journalists, who discovered they could more profitably turn their wordcraft to the services of sales – John E. Powers was reportedly earning the vast sum of US$100 per day writing copy in the 1890s. They joined forces with professional illustrators who began to produce designs specifically for the purpose of an advertisement.

A good early example of this is the advertising produced for Arrow Shirts by the copywriting team of Earnest Calkins and Ralph Holden, who hired Joseph Leyendecker to create an image for the campaign. Leyendecker used his real-life partner Charles Beach as the model, and created a character who wasn't so much about shirts as a whole lifestyle. Suave, crisply coiffed, impeccably turned out in a sharply creased collar, the Arrow Shirt Man represented a whole set of aspirational choices for the target audience, and formed the basis of Arrow Shirt's advertising for the next quarter century.

Innovators like Claude Hopkins and Albert Lasker developed the scope and sophistication of advertising in the early years of the twentieth century. Unlike his predecessors, Hopkins was a great believer in learning all about the product he was meant to be selling. He used the fact that Schlitz Beer steam cleaned its bottles to promote the brand - notwithstanding that this was common practice amongst breweries at the time. However, through association by advertising, Schlitz became the brand associated with good hygiene and purity. While Hopkins became an expert in the products he was selling, Lasker focused on the target audience, closely monitoring ad campaigns against sales curves.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1221