Punjab Technical University

BSCMCAJ-403

ADVERTISING THROUGH PRINT,

RADIO & TV
SEMESTER-4

Study Material for PTU Students

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 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN MEDIA WORLD

Mass communication and Journalism is institutionalized and source specific.

It functions through well-organized professionals and has an ever increasing
interlace. Mass media has a global availability and it has converted the whole
world in to a global village. A qualified journalism professional can take up a
job of educating, entertaining, informing, persuading, interpreting, and
guiding. Working in print media offers the opportunities to be a news
reporter, news presenter, an editor, a feature writer, a photojournalist, etc.
Electronic media offers great opportunities of being a news reporter, news
editor, newsreader, programme host, interviewer, cameraman, producer,
director, etc.

Other titles of Mass Communication and Journalism professionals are script

writer, production assistant, technical director, floor manager, lighting
director, scenic director, coordinator, creative director, advertiser, media
planner, media consultant, public relation officer, counselor, front office
executive, event manager and others.

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 INTRODUCTION

The book deal with the advertising objectives and the strategies to attain these
objectives. The book identifies the importance of advertising agency and the
various functions performed by an advertising agency. The elements of advertising
copy are also dealt in the book. Both print and electronic media for advertising are
discussed in this book. The regulation and ethics of advertising in India are also
included in the book.

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 SYLLABUS

BSCMCAJ-403: Advertising through Print, Radio & TV

1. Advertising Objectives
(a) Setting the objectives (b) Strategies to achieve objectives

2. Advertising Campaign
(a) Various stages of the campaign (b) Combined campaigns & inter-media
coordination

3. Advertising Agency
(a) Organizational Structure / Patterns
(b) Skills required for various jobs
(c) Functions of advertising agencies
(d) Their role importance
(e) Selection of advertising agency
(f) Agency commission & fee

4. Advertising Budget
(a) Advertising expenditure & process of budgeting
(b) Factors affecting advertising expenditure
(c) Methods of determining advertising expenditure
(d) Administering the budget

5. Advertising Copy
(a) Translating advertising message into copy
(b) Preparing effective copy, Punch lines
(c) Elements of a print copy - Headlines, Body copy, Illustration, Slogan, Logo
(d) Role of colours
(e) Elements of a broadcast copy
(f) Copy writing techniques for audio & video
(g) Use of visual signs, sound, audio - video effects, words
(h) Script writing for radio & television ad

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6. Production
(a) Stages of the production process - Thumbnail sketches, roughs, storyboard,
copy/script/final artwork etc.
(b) Related inputs - Photography, camera, sound system
7. Advertising Media
(a) Print Media - Newspapers, Magazines, Pamphlets, Handbills, Posters,
Souvenirs, Brochures
(b) Electronic Media - Radio, TV, Cassettes & CDs
(c) Other Media - Direct Mail, Outdoor Media
(d) Characteristics, Merits & Limitations of various media

8. Media Planning & Scheduling

(a) Selection of media category
(b) Reach, Frequency & Impact of selected media
(c) Cost & other factors influencing the choice of media
(d) Media Scheduling

9. Advertising effectiveness
(a) Methods of measuring effectiveness
(b) Pre-testing & Post - testing

10. Regulation of advertising in India

(a) Misleading & deceptive advertising
(b) Laws related to advertising
(c) Self - regulatory advertising

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ADVERTISING: PRINT, RADIO & TV

Advertising is rated on the following 10 attributes:

• Being likeable
• Being believable
• Being easy to understand
• Being unique & distinctive
• Providing new information
• Having appetite appeal
• Offering good deals
• Motivating purchase interest
• Improving the chain's image
• Overall basis

Advertising can be called a game that is played among five key players. They are:
The Advertisers, the advertising agencies, the support organization, the media
and the consumers.

Advertisers almost always use advertising agencies who assisted by support

organization-plan, produce and place the advertisements in the media to persuade the
potential consumers. Advertisers are a varied lot. They could be manufacturers,
marketers, retailers, wholesalers, service organizations, institutions, political parties,
governments, etc. They have something to promote-products, services, candidates,
plans, projects, ideas, places, policies, etc.

Advertising agencies employ creative and business talents who plan, produce and
place the advertisements in media. Advertising agencies work for the clients.
Agencies vary in size from one person looking after everything to thousands of
people. These agencies are often helped by support organizations. Agencies seek help
from freelance writers, designers, photographers, musicians, film directors, etc.

Over the years the various mass media including newspapers, magazines, radio,
television, film, and the Internet have become part and parcel of the advertising
world. Some mass media like radio and television are solely dependent on advertising
revenues for their very survival.

Advertising also uses other media like the transit vehicles. There are media
exclusively used for advertising like the outdoors, the printed publicity material, etc.

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the various media reach a variety of people in different geographic locations. The
demographic reach of various media is also different.

And finally there are the consumers. With mass production, the consumers now have
a wide variety of choices. With increased income and surplus expendable money, the
consumers are choosy about what they need and want. So marketers try their best to
woo more and more consumers by offering them what they want. They try to reach
the consumers by bombarding highly persuasive advertisements through various
media.

Advertising is the paid, non-personal communication through various media by

business firms, non-profit organizations & individuals who are in some way
identified in the advertising message & who hope to inform or persuade
members of a particular audience.

The major role of ad agency is to work alongside the clients to develop and sustain
the brands that they mutually serve through consumer understanding and insight and
through creative & media delivery skills to provide best advice and the best execution
thereof to those clients for the advertising of those brands

Advertising Objectives/Appeals

Appeal, in advertisements, is anything that motivates a person to action. Human

beings are called bundles of wants. A human being is a strange mix of hopes,
ambitions, needs, interests, goals, etc. All these things work as motivating factors.
These are also called motives. Various advertisements try to appeal to some of these
manifold motives that force people to take action. An advertising appeal is nothing
but a promise of a benefit the advertised product will provide to the buyer. For
example, the possible promises or appeals for a home appliance could be - comfort,
convenience, economy of installation, economy, cleanliness, dependability and
durability, safety, multiple operations, many varied features, trouble free operation
and smart look.

Advertising appeal refers to the basis or approach used in the advertisement to attract
the attention or interest of consumers and/or to influence their feelings toward the
product, service, idea, or cause. Advertising appeals can be broken down into two
categories-

¾ Informational/rational appeals (hard sell)

¾ Emotional appeals (soft sell).

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Informational/Rational Appeals (Hard Sell)

These appeals focus on the consumer’s practical or functional need for the product or
service and emphasize features of a product or service and/or the benefits or reasons
for using or owning a particular brand. Many rational motives can be used as the
basis for advertising appeals, including comfort, convenience, and economy.

Emotional Appeals (Soft Sell)

These appeals use an emotional message and are designed around an image intended
to touch the heart and create a response based on feelings and attitudes. Advertisers
can use emotional appeals in many ways in their creative strategy. Humor and sex
appeals, or other types of appeals that are very entertaining, upbeat, and/or exciting,
affect the emotions of consumers and put them in a favorable frame of mind. Fear
appeals can be equally dramatic in arousing emotions but have an opposite effect on
the viewer’s frame of mind.

Humor appeals: consumers have historically given high ratings to humorous

advertising. The advertisement attempts to persuade by invoking feelings of good
humor and laughter. Often the ad takes the form of a cleverly worded or humorous
slogan. The fallacy of Appeal to Humor exploits our natural response to bravely
spoken truth. The fallacy presumes that any view that can be expressed in a way that
elicits laughter must be true. However, we actually laugh for many reasons, only one
of which is the recognition of the truth of the sentiment expressed. We may also
laugh at a slogan because it is cleverly worded. We may laugh only because everyone
around us is laughing. We laugh at slapstick humor. An argument mimics our
response to bravely spoken truth when it gets us to laugh for a reason that is unrelated
to our recognition of truth, yet seems to imply that laughter entails assent.

Sex Appeals: the old adage ‘sex sells’ may not always be true. Many advertisers
view sex appeal as one of the most effective marketing practices today. In the endless
number of advertisements out there nowadays, ad agencies are desperate to have their
ads stand out. Several research studies have found that sex appeal in advertising is
attention grabbing, likable, arousing, and memorable. Ads that contain sex appeal
usually evoke positive feelings in the audience, such as excitement and desire. Other
studies state that sex appeal in advertising is also effective in eliciting fantasy. While
sex can be an effective tool in advertising, it also can be counterproductive.

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 Many consumers become so focused on the use of sex in the ad that they ignore the
brand name, thus producing the opposite of the desired result. The extensive use of
sex appeal in ads also tends to stereotype women as well as distorting society's idea
of how women should look. Some advertising executives see the use of sex appeal as
"men's desperate attempt to make their advertising break through the clutter". Sex in
advertisements tends to focus on women with their target audience being men,
forgetting about the major consumer demographic women make up.

Overall it is understandable why advertisers see sex appeal as being such an

effective tool. If used appropriately sex appeal draws attention to ads, makes them
memorable, and helps sell the product. If overdone, sex appeal can have the exact
opposite effect. Not only can it distract the audience from the message of the ad but it
can offend the audience as well. Depending on how sex appeal is used it can either
make or break an advertisement.

Fear appeals: The use of fear as a motivation in advertising places emphasis on the
severity of the threat. Fear appeals range in intensity from mild to severe. The fear-
based messages should present a mild to moderate threat and provide a do-able
solution. If the fear instilled is either too severe or not followed up with a reasonable
solution, the viewer will not be able to surmount his/her sense of dread and process
the advertising message. In a similar vein, negative ads (ads in which the viewer is
exposed to annoying or unpleasant creative content) can also be effective if the
negative technique is used to promote a product benefit. This situation is often
referred to as the "love that product, hate that ad". Fear appeals have been used
heavily in campaigns designed to combat drug addictions and other health-related
problems

Combination Appeals: these appeals combine informational/rational and emotional

appeals. In many advertising situations, the creative specialist does not choose an
emotional over a rational appeal, but rather decides how to combine the two.
Consumer purchase decisions are often made on the basis of both the emotional and
rational motives, and copywriters must give attention to both elements in developing
effective advertising.

Those who prefer straightforward, no-nonsense, factual advertisements like appeals

that deliver relevant facts in support of the product. They want presentations to be
professional, but they do not believe it is important for the advertisements to be
artistic. Others favor a creative, emotionally based approach. They believe that
advertisements focusing heavily on information are likely to be ignored, and that
focusing on emotion is more likely to create the desired response.

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Advertising Copy

Making an Advertisement

Advertising is both an art and a science. The art comes from writing, designing, and
producing exciting messages. The science comes from strategic thinking and planning,
including research. The creative specialist or team must first deal with the problem of
coming up with a concept. Then the specialist or team must develop a creative
strategy, determine appropriate appeals, and select a styled of execution. The ad must
then be cast into a print, television, radio, or other format. At this stage, copywriters
generally collaborate with artistic or production teams to create the actual
advertisements. From start to finish, the process of ad creation involves a
multitude of decisions that require understanding of both the product and the
consumer as well as knowledge of the various formats and media.

Behind every good advertisement is a creative concept, a big idea that makes the
message distinctive, attention getting, memorable. Though great ideas may be hard to
come by, but some advertising experts argue that for an advertising campaign to be
effective, it must contain a ‘big idea’ that attracts the consumer’s attention, gets a
reaction, and sets the advertiser’s product or service apart from the competitors.

However, several methods can guide the creative team’s search for a major selling idea
and offer alternative solutions or options for developing effective advertising. These
methods include the ‘incubation’ technique, the process of lateral thinking, and the
storytelling process.

Technique for Producing Ideas:

It will basically involve the following:

1. Gathering information: gather specific information, (elements directly related to

the product or services) and general information (observed information about life and
events). Then, digest this material and give it a mental work over.
2. Incubate: next is the ‘incubation’ period, forget about it and let the subconscious
mind go to work, and eventually the idea will appear ‘out of nowhere’.
3. Mull, develop, and adapt: finally, shape, develop, and adapt the idea to advertising.
The idea of consciously forgetting about the project and letting the subconscious mull
ideas over time is typical of the creative writing process. Insights may come from
sub-conscious mind as mental pictures and images.

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Lateral Thinking: this process explores new relationships, breaking established
thought patterns to generate new ideas and escape old ways of thinking. Since ideas
are turned upside-down and looked at in new ways, this concept is also called out-of-
the-box thinking.

Storytelling: Advertising at its best is a form of storytelling. The most compelling

advertisements have all the components of a short story. They introduce
characters, identify tensions and problems, develop toward a conflict, and then offer a
resolution that is usually provided by the product or service. Some of the best
television commercials could be called lyrical; they have the poetic quality of
condensing legendary and mythic stories familiar to the target’s culture into spots as
brief as fifteen seconds.

For instance, an award-winning Australian commercial for Levi’s 501 jeans alludes,
to both the myth of the American cowboy and the legendary rebelliousness of the
1950s. With no dialogue, the spot uses the classical rock single ‘be my baby’ as the
musical backdrop for a sixty-second fantasy. Employing the familiar journey motif of
American film, the commercial begins with an establishing shot of an isolated stretch
of desert highway.

To create effective advertisements, ad creators must be familiar with the target’s

cultural interests, e.g. the music, books and magazines they enjoy; the movies they
are likely to have seen; the problems that typically occupy their minds. Familiarity
with the classics and with various film genres allows creative to envision memorable
commercial spots. However, creatively the big Idea may be conceived, the ad must
do more than resonate with the consumer. The consumer, who views the
advertisement, must be able to understand, among other things, the product benefit
and selling message.

Creative Strategy

The creative aspect of advertising is guided by specific goals and objectives that
require development of a creative strategy. A creative strategy focuses on what the
advertising message will say or communicate and guides the development of all
messages used in the advertising campaign.
Some of the best-known approaches are:

• Unique selling-proposition approach: an advertiser makes a superiority claim

based on a unique product attribute that represents a meaningful, distinctive

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 consumer benefit. Many of the successful USPs, result from identifying real,
inherent product advantages.
• Brand image approach: whereas USP approach is based on promoting
physical and functional differences between the advertisers’ product and
competitive offerings, the brand-image approach popularized by David
Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather Agency, involves psychological rather
than physical differentiation. Advertising attempts to develop an image identity
for a brand by associating the product with symbols. Perhaps the most
successful image advertising of all times is the Marlboro campaign. The
campaign has focused on western imagery (cowboys, horses, ranching). Since
the United States is said to have two major myths systems-the Old West and
the Old South- the cowboy is a strong and compelling image.
• Positioning approach: the concept of positioning as Jack Trout introduced a
basis for advertising strategy in the early 1970s. According to this approach,
successful advertising must implant in the customer’s mind a clear meaning of
what the product is and how it compares to competitive offerings.
• Generic brand approach: when you are the number one brand, you have no
need to acknowledge the competition or claim superiority. Such an approach
can be used only as long as a product or service truly does dominate the brand
category. Leo Burnett chose to use a generic approach for Kellogg’s ‘Eat it for
life’ campaign, a surprising but innovative choice.
• The resonance approach: this approach requires that the creative team have a
deep understanding of the target audience’s world, including their experiences
and emotions. Advertising created with this approach ‘does not focus on
product claims or brand images, but rather is designed to present situations or
emotions that evoke positive associations from the memories of the
respondents’. For example, Hallmark uses this approach in appealing to the
emotions of those who buy greeting cards with their familiar tagline’ when you
care enough to send the very best’.

The copy platform, or creative brief, is the written document that specifies the basic
elements of the creative strategy. The format of the copy platform varies from agency
to agency, but it generally contains some variations of the following: a profile of the
target audience, the problem, issue, or opportunity that advertising is expected to
address; the advertising objective, the key customer benefit; supportive benefits; and
a creative strategy statement.

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Creative Execution Styles
Once the specific advertising appeal that will be used as the basis for the advertising
message has been determined, the creative specialist or team must then turn its
attention to execution. Creative execution refers to the way in which an
advertising appeal is carried out or presented. In addition to using humor, an
advertising message or appeal can be presented in numerous ways:

• Testimonial- also called word-of-mouth advertising; this approach uses well-

known figures or an unknown, ‘typical’ person to provide product testimonials.
• Problem-solution- this tactic presents the viewer with a problem to be solved
and the solution is provided by the advertiser’s product
• Demonstration- this is designed to illustrate key advantages or benefits of the
product or service by showing it in actual use or in some contrived situation
• Slice-of-life- a variation of the problem-solution approach, this technique
portrays a real-life situation involving a problem or conflict that consumers
face in daily life. The ad then focuses on showing how the advertiser’s product
or service can resolve that problem
• Fantasy- this approach uses special effects to create an imaginative place,
events, or characters.

Advertising Design
Once creative strategy, appeals, and execution styles have been decided, it is time to
create the actual advertisement.

The three basic components of a Print ad are the headline, body copy, and visual
or illustrations. The headline and body copy portions of the advertisement are the
responsibility of the copywriters, while artists, often working under the direction of
an art director-are responsible for the visual presentation of the advertisement. Artists
also work with copywriters to develop a layout. The layout involves the arrangement
of the various components of the ad, such as headlines, subheads, body copy, and
taglines. The tagline is a memorable saying or slogan that conveys a selling
message.

Television copy consists of, two elements- the audio and the visual. The video
(visual elements) is what the viewer sees on the television screen. The visual
generally dominates the commercial so it must attract the viewer’s attention and
communicate a key idea, message, and/or image. The audio includes such elements as
voices, music, and sound effects. Broadcast commercials are demanding to make and
they must be credible and relevant. Research shows that the following techniques
work best: the opening should be short, compelling attention getter,
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demonstrations should be interesting and believable; the content should be
ethical, in good taste, and entertaining; and the general structure of the
commercial and copy should be simple and easy to follow.

Radio copy presents a particular challenge to advertisers and their agencies because
it lacks the visual aspects of both print and television. Successful radio spots usually
enable listeners to visualize the product or something related to it. For this reason,
radio advertising is often referred to as ‘theater of the mind’.

One of the most challenging aspects of writing for radio is making the script fit the
time slot. The copywriter should read the script out loud for timing. With electronic
compression, recorded radio advertisements can now include 10 to 30 percent more
copy than text read live.

To appear professional and to be easy to produce, copy must adhere to the

appropriate industry format. All copy begins with the name of the advertisers in the
upper left-hand corner. The size of the print ad or length of the broadcast script
followed by identification of the medium to be used appears on the second line. The
name given to the advertisement appears on the third line. Often a series of
advertisements are created for a specific advertising campaign. In this case, all the
ads created for the campaign may have one name, which unifies the series.

Background of making an Advertisement

In Print advertising, the key format elements are the headlines, the visuals,
subheads, body copy, slogans, seals, logotypes (logos), and signature. Copywriters
can correlate the headline, visual, and subhead to the attention step of the creative
pyramid. The interest step typically corresponds to the sub-headline and the first
paragraph of body copy. Body copy handles credibility and desire, and the action step
takes place with to logo, slogan, and signature block.

The Headline
Effective headlines attract attention, engage the audience, explain the visual, lead the
audience into the body of the ad, and present the selling message. The headline is the
most important thing as advertiser says to the prospect. It explains or gives greater
meaning to the visual and then immediately dictates the advertiser’s position in that
person’s mind, whether or not the prospect chooses to read on.

Ideally, headlines present the complete selling idea. Working off the visual, the
headline creates the mood and tells the reader to take action (through implication) and

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triggers a recognition response, which reinforces brand recognition and brand
preference. Also, the headline should present product news. Consumers look for new
products, new uses for old products, or improvements on old products, if they haven’t
been overused in a category.

‘Power’ words that imply newness can increase readership and should be employed
whenever honestly applicable. Examples include free, now, amazing, suddenly,
announcing, introducing, its here, improved, at last, revolutionary, just arrived, and
important development.

Subheads
The subheads, an additional smaller headline, may appear above the headline or
below it. A subhead above the headline, called a kicker (or over line) is often
underlined. Subheads may also appear in body copy.

Subheads are usually set smaller than the headline but larger than the body copy or
text. Subheads generally appear in boldface (heavier) type or a different color. Like a
headline, the subhead transmits key sales points fast. But it usually carries less
important information than the headline. Subheads are important for two reasons:
most individuals read only the headline and subheads, and subheads usually
support the interest step best. Subheads are longer and more like sentences. They
serve as stepping-stones from the headline to the body copy, telegraphing what’s to
come.

Body Copy
The advertiser tells the complete sales story in the body copy or text. The body copy
comprises the interest, credibility, desire, and often even the action steps. It is a
logical continuation of the headline and subheads, set in smaller type. Body copy
covers the features, benefits, and utility of the product or service.

The body copy is typically read by only one out of ten readers, so the writer must
speak to the reader’s self –interest, explaining how the product or service satisfies the
customer’s need. The best ads focus on one big idea or one clear benefit.
Copywriters often read their copy aloud to hear how it sounds, even if it’s intended
for print media. The ear is a powerful copywriting tool.

Slogans
Many slogans (also called theme lines or taglines) begin as successful headlines.
Through continuous use, they become standard statements, not just in advertising but
also for salespeople and company employees.

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Slogans have two basic purposes: to provide continuity to a series of ads in a
campaign and to reduce an advertising message strategy to a brief, repeatable, and
memorable positioning statement. DeBeers’ ads, for example, still use the famous
slogan “Diamonds are forever”.

Seals, Logos, and Signatures

A seal is awarded only when a product meets standards established by a particular
organization. Since these organizations are recognized authorities, their seals provide
an independent, valued endorsement for the advertiser’s product.

Logotypes and signatures cut (sign cuts) are special designs of the advertiser’s
company or product name. They appear in all company ads and, like trademarks, give
the product individuality and provide quick recognition at that point of purchase.

Functions of Layout
A Layout is an overall orderly arrangement of all the format elements of an ad:
headline, subheads, visuals, copy, captions, trademarks, slogans, and signature.

The layout serves several purposes. First, it helps both the agency and the client
develop and evaluate the ad’s final look and feel. It gives the client (usually not an
artist) a tangible item to correct, change, comment on, and approve.

Secondly, the layout helps the creative team develop the ad’s psychological
elements- the nonverbal and symbolic components. The ‘look’ of the ad should elicit
an image or mood that reflects and enhances the advertiser and the product.
Therefore, when designing the initial ad layout, the creative team must be very
sensitive to the desired image of the product or business.

Third, once the best design is chosen, the layout serves as a blueprint. It shows the
size and placement of each element in the advertisement. Once the production
manager knows the dimensions of the ad, the number of photos, the amount of
typesetting, and the use of art elements such as color and illustrations, he or she can
determine the cost of producing the advertisement.

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Advertising Layout Strategy

Proportional guideline:

1. Illustration 65 %
2. Headline 10 %
3. Copy 20 %
4. Logo 5%
of space allocation (20%+ white
100%
space)

Illustration
In most ads, the illustration is used to attract attention. Large, single illustrations
attracted the most attention. Though the headline may be the "stopper", the
illustration is the most critical element in the ad's success. It can also visually
communicate product benefits and concept, and lead the reader into the headline and
copy.

Headline
The headline is used to attract attention, arouse interest, and make the ad more
attractive and readable. However, it should not be over 10 words and more than 15 %
of the ad's total area.

Copy
Style of typeface used in the headline, subhead and copy will impact the mood and
readability of the advertisement. Mixed type should be either very similar or very
different. Mixing more than two (or three at most) different typefaces makes an ad
busy and confusing.

Logo
Because we read left to right and top to bottom, the logo or company signature can be
strategically placed in the lower right hand corner of an advertisement. With this
position, the logo is the last element we see and most likely remember.

Direct the viewer's eye

from the page's top, down through the center and end at the page's bottom. The eye
sees the illustration first, and then we read down from there. Headlines located below
the illustration pull 10% more readers.

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Emphasis
The optical center of an ad is in the center and two-thirds up from the bottom. This
should be the ad's focal point.

Proportional use of space

The proportional use of space in an ad is dependent upon the product and market
target. Product ads that try to communicate an image (perfume, jewelry, etc.) will
have a greater proportion of illustration and little copy. Conversely, an ad for a
technical product will have more copy.

White Space
At least 20 % of an ad should be blank (white space). Ample white space helps gain
attention, create contrast, and unify the advertisement. White space is probably the
most underestimated element in advertisements.

Bleed
A page without a border is called a bleed because the ink bleeds through the
surrounding white border into the trim space. An obvious benefit of this
technique is that the ad itself becomes larger. Although most publishers charge extra
for bleeds, this cost is often justified by the ads extra impact. A bleed carries the
implication of action, freedom, and adventure and tends to make the ad more
lifelike. In research, it is found that nearly half of all high readership ads used bleeds.
Conversely, only 14% of low readership ads used this technique.

Borders
In contrast, borders set up continuity, structure, and formality. Borders can isolate the
ad from surrounding copy and other ads -forcing you to focus on the advertisement.
However, they tend to make the ad appear smaller.

Layout Steps

The various steps in the layout are the progression from visualization to the final
artwork, when it is ready for sending for production. The art director or the visualizer
starts with the thumbnail sketches also known as idea-generation miniatures. These
are simple drawings that contain an ad’s basic elements.
A good layout should have the following basic elements:

Balance
Balance is a fundamental law of nature and life. Odd things stand out. Balance way is
defined as a matter of weight distribution. In layout, it is related to the optical center

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of an advertisement. The optical center is the point, which the eye designates as the
center of an area.

Proportion
Proportion is related to balance but is concerned primarily with the division of the
space and the emphasis needed to be according to each element. Proportion also
involves the tone of the ad, i.e. the amount of light areas in relation to the dark one
and the amount of colour required and the decision to avoid color.

Movement
Eyes follow a particular movement. This is the result of reading a particular kind of
script early from life. Readers of western and Devanagri script are habitual of
looking at the reading material from left to right and then from top to bottom. The
Arabic script, in which Persian and Urdu are written, goes from right to left.

Unity
Unification of the layout is what is meant by the term unity. All the elements in the
ad, must be united to be a composite whole. This is achieved when the element tie
into once another by making use of the same basic shapes. Unity can be achieved by
grouping the elements, by encasing the ad in a border, by aligning one element with
another or by the overlapping of elements.

Mood
Sizes, textures, colours, illustrations, and the type also contribute to create a mood for
the advertisement. It is always ideal to choose type from one family to create the right
harmony and mood. Similarly the white space will also create the appropriate mood.
The two basic devices of illustrating an ad are photography and drawing.

(a) Photography: Pictures in advertisements create a feeling of immediacy, live

action, speed, empathy, association, and flexibility. And it is not a matter of
coincidence that the majority of ads contain pictures. The pictures encompass
a variety of subjects, like, people, animals, flowers, monuments, birds, objects,
etc. These are selected on the basis of the aim of the advertisement. The
selection of right characters is very important. Professional photography is a
specialized area, and agencies generally have on their panel photographers
from various fields of specialization, like fashion, nature, profiles, table top,
industry, children, etc.
(b) Drawings: Illustration is used in an ad, when visualizer feels that its impact
will be more than that of a photograph. A number of techniques are used in
producing drawings. In line drawing, everything is sharp, precise and in black

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 and white without any gray tones. Cartoons are generally done as line
drawings. Wash drawing is defined as an illustration, using tones and shades
and can be in one or more colours. It can be both in realist or impressionist
style. Fashion and furniture ads at times use this technique, as these look
attractive and distinct.

Colour Psychology
No reference to advertising can be complete unless one speaks about colour, or rather
the role of colour. Colour adds realism, besides beauty and distinctiveness. The right
blend of colours adds a dash of magic to the ad. Some scholars feel that people’s
reaction to colour is based on a person’s national origin and culture. Colours also
have a psychology of their own and various colours depict various moods.

Typography
Typography is the art of selecting typefaces, of which there are hundreds of designs;
blending different typefaces; casting off the number of word to fit spaces’ and
marking up copy for typesetting, using different sizes and weights.

Good typography leads to legibility (readability), and attractiveness, and certain

designs of type can create style and character or be characteristics of the advertised
subject. Typography is yet another area that needs to be considered carefully,
especially in print advertising material. Typesetters and photo composers swear by
various types, conveying specific moods and ambience. Type styles are chosen,
keeping in view the objectives and strategy of the campaign.

Stages of Advertising Design Process

The design process serves as both a creative and an approval process. In the creative
phase, the designer uses thumbnails, roughs, dummies, and comprehensives-in other
words, non-final art – to establish the ad’s look and feel. The final artwork with the
actual type in placed along with all the visuals; the printer will need to reproduce the
ad. The approval process takes place throughout the entire design process.

(i) Thumbnail Sketches – the thumbnail sketch, or thumbnail, is a small,

rough, rapidly produced drawing the artist uses to visualize layout
approaches without wasting time on details. Thumbnails are very basic.
Blocks of straight or squiggly lines indicate text placement, and boxes show
placement of visuals. The best sketches are then developed further.

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(ii) Rough Layout – in a rough, the artist draws to the actual size of the ad.
Headlines and subheads suggest the final type style, illustrations and
photographs are sketched in, and body copy is simulated with lines. The
agency may present rough to clients, particularly cost-conscious ones.

(iii) Comprehensive – the comprehensive layout, or comp, is a highly refined

facsimile of the finished ad. A comp is generally quite elaborate; with
elaborate, with coloured photos, press-on-learning, Photostats of sub
visuals, and a glossy spray coat. Today, a copy for the comp is typeset on
computer and positioned with the visuals, and the ad is printed as a full-
colour proof. At this stage, all visuals should be final.

(iv) Art work-this is the final stage of layout. Here care is taken to look into
each minute detail. The copy is properly composed or lettered. Proper
photographs, paintings, sketches, or graphics are used. Other elements like
borders etc are properly places. Colouring is done. Finishing artists give the
final touches. This stage is now ready to be printed. All these various stages
of preparing the layout are beneficial in a many ways. First these stages
save time, money and efforts. If you prepare a final layout without taking
the approval and it gets rejected, then all the material used, efforts and time
spend are wasted. Also working on only one idea curtails the various other
possible options.

A layout starts with a blank piece of paper. What the layout artist does is to
place the copy, visuals, and other elements on it. This placing of elements is
not just mere decoration. What is required is a good, clear vision and
interpretation of the selling concept of the story. A good layout allows all its
elements-visuals, headlines, subheadings, body copy, charts, maps, logo,
borders, and other elements-to work together to do the job of telling the
product story.

A good layout takes into consideration the principles of balance,

proportion, unity, contrast, harmony, rhythm, and direction. And
finally a good layout must be attractive, must create an appropriated mood
or feeling, and must have individually to stand out from the clutter of
advertisements.

(v) Dummy – a dummy presents the handheld look and feel of brochures,
multi-page materials, or point-of-purchase displays. The artist assembles the
dummy by hand, using color markers and computer proofs, mounting them

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 on sturdy paper, and then cutting and folding them to size. A dummy for a
brochure, for example, is put together, page by page, to look exactly like the
finished product.

(vi) Mechanical (paste-up) – the type and visuals must be placed into their
exact position for reproduction by printer. Today, most designer does this
work on computer, completely bypassing the need for a mechanical. Some
agencies, however, still make traditional mechanicals where black type and
line art are pasted in place on a piece of white art board- called a paste-up-
with overlay sheets indicating the hue and positioning of colour. Printers
refer to the mechanical or paste-up as camera-ready art because they
photograph it using a large production camera before starting the
reproduction process creating colour keys, prints, and films of the finished
ad. At any time during the design process-until the printing press lays ink
on paper- changes can be made on the art. However, the expense may grow
tenfold with each step from roughs to mechanicals to printing.

(vii) Approval – the work of copywriter and art director is always subject to
approval. The larger the agency and the larger the client, the more
formidable this process becomes. The agency’s creative director first
approves a new ad concept. Then the account management team reviews it.
Next, the client’s product managers and marketing staff review it, often
changing a work or two or sometimes rejecting the whole approach. Both
the agency’s and client’s legal departments scrutinize the copy and art for
potential problems. Finally, the company’s top executives review the final
concept and text.

The biggest challenge in approval is keeping approvers from corrupting the

style of the ad. The creative team works hard to achieve a cohesive style.
Then a group of non-writers and non-artists have the opportunity to change
it all. Maintaining artistic purity is extremely difficult and requires patience,
flexibility, maturity, and the ability to articulate an important point of view.

Layouts and Design

Design is the art side of communication- the visual side of printed pieces,
television, presentations, packages, trademarks, publication- all the things that affect
in visual ways as well as verbal ways, all the things we look at in communications.
Design comes from a background of art training. The graphic designer brings the

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understanding of line, colour, texture, mass, and form to his work-all the visual
influential things into the field of communication.

Design is art term meaning the arrangement of elements that make up a work of
art. Painters call it composition. In film it is called editing. It is the sense of visual
elements working together to influence the viewers. It may be the visual images
working one after another on the pages of an annual report. In may be the sequence of
images hitting the viewer in fast cut scenes in a television spot. It may be the
sequence of elements arranged in important and dominant style on a single page of
making an ad photo, type, and logo.

Layout & Design

Once headlines and body copy have been written, copywriters prepare rough sketches
to convey their concept to the art directors. These sketches rough out the desired
placement of headlines, subheads, and body copy, the company logo, and visuals.
Basic advertising layouts include these types: Copy Heavy (ad space dominated by
text), Frame (graphics or other image frame the copy), Grid (space divided by
squares of equal size), Mondrian (space divided into boxes or sections, not
necessarily of equal size), Picture Window (space largely occupied by art- a photo,
drawing, or other image), and Type Specimen (space dominated by the headline
which substitutes for art). Subheads are often used to break up long copy. Italicized
copy and reverses (white print on black) should be used sparingly.

Typography
Typography is the art of selecting and setting type. Because almost every
advertisement has some reading matter, type has tremendous importance. Typefaces
affect an advertisement’s appearance, design, and readability. Art directors rely on
stark, eye-catching typefaces to help break through the clutter of competing
advertisements.

Type Families
All typefaces (or type fonts) come in families, just as human faces do. Many of them
have proud family names, usually inherited from the original designer of the
typeface, such as Bodoni, Gothic, Goudy. Certain families offer all kinds of
variations. To present his client’s product well, creative executives use various
typefaces. Most traditional types have small cross strokes, called ‘Serifs’ that appear
on the arms of certain letters. Some of the more modern type designs do not have
these tiny extensions on the end of letters. Such typefaces are called ‘Sans Serif’.
Each family offers capital letters and small letters referred to by typographers as
‘uppercase and lowercase’ and may usually be italicized.

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Typefaces
Families of type fall into one of several ‘faces’. These include Roman (Bookman,
New Century, Schoolbook, and Times), Sans Serif (Franklin, Gothic, Futura 2, and
Helvetica), Square serif, or Egyptian (Aachen Bold), Script (Calligrapher and
Nuptial), and Pi faces (Wood type Ornaments and Zapf Dingbats).

Typographic noise is said to occur when type families of the same face are mixed in
an advertisement, Sans Serif types are best used for headlines and serifs for body
copy as the serif enhances readability. The serif makes reading easier because ‘it cuts
down the reflection of light from around the letter into the reader’s eye (halation); it
links the letters in a word and provides a horizontal guideline; and it helps distinguish
one letter from another. Because of their superior readability, serif types are also
preferred for copy that will be faxed as individual letters lose clarity in faxing. Most
of the type one sees in textbook, novels, newspaper stories, and a magazine
article is Roman type.

Points
Type is measured in points. There are 72 points to 1 inch vertically. Most families of
type offer sizes from tiny 6 point to giant 72 point and larger. When fairly long text is
being set in type, 10-point, 12 point, or 14-point size makes for good reading. Beyond
14 point are the displays or headline sizes. The ad layout included the amount of
actual length and width of the advertisement itself.

Pica measurements
In typography the unit of area measurement is called a pica. There are 12 points
in a pica, 6 picas to an inch. A copy block might be termed 16 picas wide by 36 picas
deep.

Types of Designs
Visual recall is becoming increasingly important and corporate symbols and
advertising will need to be stronger and eye-catching to capture consumer attention.
Nonverbal communication will not only become a means for drawing attention to a
verbal message, but it will also become the message itself in many instances. The use
of imagery, visual associations, drawings and paintings, models, visual memory
devices, product and corporate symbols, are pervasive in advertising.

Advertising visual and its graphical components has long been the target of studies
since marketers began to adopt full-scale marketing activities in the late nineteenth
century. The important theme was how the visual appeal could be translated into an
effective selling message.

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The role of advertising visuals includes obtaining attention, creating impact, and
stimulating interest from an indifferent audience through conveying a main selling
point of products or brands.

Advertising visuals perform two main functions - literal and symbolic. Literal
visuals provide factual information on products or services, and symbolic visuals
perform an indirect role to connect the images of products or services with the
meanings that are appropriately assigned to them.

Advertising is part of the changing social, economic, and cultural environment, and
its visuals might have been created in a way that could reflect those changes that
people would want to adjust themselves to.

Another way of linking advertising and its visuals to society and culture is the
cultural approach to advertising. Cultural historians argue that advertising is an
important window through which different aspects of society and culture can be
explained.

But also, the advertising itself can be explained to determine how it might have been
shaped by society. This approach recognizes advertising not only as a window to
culture but also a mirror that reflects the culture, or the cultures.

Your ad becomes an extended image of your business. It conveys your style and
hence attracts customers who appreciate that style. It should reflect the product you
have to offer - sophisticated, whimsical, classic, etc. Everything you do should reflect
the feel of the product. Develop an ad that's a stopper! One that gets a reader's
attention, and causes a reaction.

Some Guidelines for Advertisement Design:

• Make sure the ad reflects your product and image.

• Don't let the design overshadow the message.
• Have a logo professionally designed and use it. A logo design is the visual
equivalent of your name. Your name gives form to your identity, and a
recognizable identity is the name of the game in advertising.
• Make sure the ad contains clear information on where you are, when you are
open, and how to reach you.
• Photographs, graphics, illustrations, or typography alone can be equally
effective at grabbing the reader's eye. Use what best gets your well thought-
out, clear message out there.

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 • Establish a look and maintain it. Repetition is important in advertising; it
would defeat your purpose to change the look of every ad. Once you've
established a basic design, you can use creative ways, such as varying the
illustration, to change it.

Do you often see, as much as you see when you surf through the Web? It’s pretty
sure that you have entirely different views and reactions upon seeing and actually
taking notice to these two different kinds of advertising. The differences may vary in
print advertisements outdoors and Web advertisements in the use of color, typefaces,
and space.

Whatever else the difference is between Print Ads and Web Ads, many would still
prefer the traditional print advertisements in order to promote their business,
products, or services. Not all people have access to the Web, such that Print Ads are
still widely used and appreciated. It is also practical for a short-term marketing plan
or strategy.

Here are several useful things to remember if you are launching a Print Ad:

• Take advantage of a small space by not crowding too much information into it.
Leave a white space, which can actually lead your reader to the important
information.

• Ads with large photos or illustrations of merchandise get higher readership and
appreciation than those with small illustrations or no art.

• People do not actually read your copy, but take a look at your visuals. Thus,
make your photographs or illustration occupy at least half of your entire
Advertisement.

• You must know how your readers read, so that you could strategically place
your content and not be left unread.

• Typography is an important key to effective communication. In your print ads

headlines, avoid all capital letters. Our eyes and brains are conditioned to
identify lower case letters and words. Letters and words in lower cases may
just be glanced over, but with full comprehension since people are familiar
with them. People also tend to read words by the shape of the word and not by
reading individual letters thus; your print ads words must be of a distinctive
shape.

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 • Your print ads must be consistent with important information placed where
readers would expect to see it. Consistency is an important aspect of your print
ad since most readers must be exposed to it seven times before they notice it or
take action on it.

• Your ad must have consistency in:

9 Logo
9 Color
9 Typography
9 Margins and borders
9 Layout
9 Spacing
9 Photographs and captions
9 You must also be consistent in your page layout and other design
elements like contrast, balance, etc.
9 On top of everything else, you have to make sure that your print ad
communicates the main point of your advertisement the main attraction
and the necessary information for your prospective clients.

For your print ads to turn out successfully, you must have at least a single great idea,
on top of several good ideas. Remember, there is a world of difference between a
great idea and a good idea.

Tips for Successful Print Ad Designing:

• Do not place a period at the end of a headline. Periods tend to indicate to

readers that there is no need to read on.
• Begin headlines at top left. Studies have shown that the reader's eye naturally
falls to the upper left corner.
• "Serif" typefaces are regarded as the most legible font; nearly every newspaper
in the world uses them due to their high readability. Readers are comfortable
with them.
• Avoid color headlines; researchers have noted that readers find colored
headlines distracting. Studies have also shown that the darker the color, the
greater the comprehension. Keep the text black if possible.
• Black text on a tinted background also increases comprehension. It is easier on
the readers' eyes than the black and white contrast.
• Avoid reverse print (e.g., white text on black background).
• Keeps your layout clean, including using consistent type styles.

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 • A traditional ad layout is: photo/illustration over headline over body copy. This
is not etched in stone, but it has been proven effective.
• Remember that for every advertising rule, there is an exception that is just as
effective.

Visual Personality of Advertisements

Identity marks have been around for as many years as civilization the signature marks
on primitive handcraft, the guild marks, and heraldry of medieval era, the
trademarks of our commercial time.

Some trademarks identify only one product. But now with the increase diversification
of corporation, many are meant to identify the whole corporate entity. These
emblems, or ‘service marks’ (legal terms), serve as visual reinforcements of the
advertiser’s name.

A trademark does not in itself constitute a corporate personality-that is the

‘total impression a company may make on the public through its ‘public
relations and advertising efforts. The trademark will grow or suffer in relation to
the other factors.

Corporate emblems have become important-as certification identities in the

commercial arena. Visual identification has become so important that many
companies have extended their programme to include exclusive lettering alphabets,
distinctive colour scheme, matching architectural considerations, coordinated product
design, and consistent formatting for printed material.

These attentions have created strong personalities for big firm with their designed
products, controlled trademark use, special lettering style, and carefully planned
colour mixes.

While our verbal language is the most technical of our message systems, visual
language operates as a simple and more easily absorbed form of communication on
this recognition language, the better identity programme will reflect the character of
company’s product or service. It will provide ‘content clues’ for easier recognition.

Use of Emblems

The best emblems are simple in form, readable in large size on a poster.
Recognizable in 1-inch size in an ad, emblem and name style must be individual and
suitable for all the places a company identified itself. They are many: letter-heads,

29
envelopes, business cards, utility stationery, company literature, ads, television,
products, delivery trucks, packages, wrapping papers, announcements, Diwali or
Christmas cards, catalogues, building signs etc.

The graphic designer, artist, and human being, tries to put a story into the emblem- a
story of common symbolism or a story with recognition clues will relate the
identifying mark to a dignified human value.

Basics of Ad Designs

Ad design is an art unto itself. Creating effective banners ads can be an elusive task.

Colors and Designs - When color is used correctly, it can add impact and clarity to
your ad message. Color can emphasize, highlight, and lead your end users to a call-
to-action. Color can also be used to trigger emotion.

1. Be professional: People are going to get their first impressions of your ad, so you
need to be certain that it presents you in the best possible manner. This means you
should be extra careful that all your spelling and grammar are correct. Also, select
font sizes, styles, and colors that maximize your ad's readability. If your banner ad is
of poor quality, people will assume your product is too.

2. Ask for an action: What do you want people who see your ad to do? Most likely,
first and foremost, you want them to simply read further on it, so be sure your ad
makes them do so.

3. Keep it simple: Your ad may only have a few seconds to make its impact on the
viewer. As a result, it must be able to convey your message in a small amount of
time. By keeping your ad's concept and wording clear and concise, you increase the
likelihood that the viewer will actually get your message. Use the fewest (and most
simple) words you can. Just because you can fit more words in your ad doesn't mean
you should.

4. Use words that raise attention or emotion: Words like "free"“, special offer",
"secrets", etc. help grab the viewer's attention and increase his/her curiosity in your
offer. Try this technique: pretend you are reading your ad's text for the first time:
would YOU be interested in or excited about what it offers? If not, then most people
probably wouldn't be either.

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5. Emphasize benefits, not features: What is the difference between a "benefit" and
a "feature"? In simple terms, a "feature" is a service or an aspect of a service that you
offer. A "benefit" is the actual impact it has on your customer.

6. Test your banners: Run each one for a week or two and collect any data you can.
Analyze your data to determine what the more successful ads have in common and
then refine your ads and test them again.

Use of Colors

When color is used correctly, it can add impact and clarity to your ad message. Color
can emphasize, highlight, and lead your end users to a call-to-action. Color can also
be used to trigger emotion.

When color is used incorrectly, it can compromise your message and confuse your
target audience. The interpretation of a color depends on culture, physiology of the
eye, readability, your target audience's profession or industry, and personal
preference.

When designing an ad, you should be careful about the colors you select if you are
targeting a specific country or a global audience. For example, though the color
purple is also associated with royalty in European countries, the color orange is
associated with royalty in the Netherlands. The color white is associated with death in
China whereas white is associated with purity in Western cultures.

Colors and legibility

How the human eye processes color is also a consideration for selecting ad colors.
Purple is one of the hardest colors for the eye to discern, so it might not be a good
overall color choice. On the other hand, yellow is the first color the eye processes. So
if you were to try and call attention to some text on a dark-colored banner or poster
ad, yellow can be an excellent color choice. But if you were to use yellow as a
background color of a banner, you might want to alter the color so that it is less
stressful on the eye.

In order to make the text on an ad legible, it is very important to use colors that
provide a high contrast. Black and white are the two colors that provide the highest
color contrast.

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Colour versus Black and White

Although the basic principles of layout designs and picture composition remain the
same for colour and black and white, the decision to use colour or colours affect the
development of copy and art and complicates the graphic arts process required to
produce the finished print advertisement.

As compared the black and white, the periodicals charge a higher rate for the colour
ads of the same size. Cost of art and mechanical production are much higher in colour
than in black and white. In this way, adding colours to advertisements increase the
cost materially except for simple applications as printing one colour on a different
colour paper for a direct advertising piece. But still, some advertisers are willing to
pay ‘higher costs to colour ads for a number of reasons:

• Colour adds attention value. It catches the eyes of the readers, consumers, and
prospects.
• It helps emphasize important elements in an ad due to contrasts in colour
• Colour presents the product or situation with a sense of realism or atmosphere
impossible in black and white
• Colour provides a clear identification of product, its brand name and trademark

Most of the readers expect colours in ads for food, beverages, and traveling as well as
for fabrics and fashions and the advertisers will gain much more. On the other hand,
messages designed to promote a particular instance policy or new banking services
require no colour for effective communication. The advertiser will be benefited in
such cases through the use of black and white.

Types of Newspaper Advertisements Designs

The major types of newspaper advertising are display, classified, public notices, and
preprinted inserts.

Display Advertisement
Display advertising includes copy, illustrations or photographs, headlines, coupons,
and other visual components. Display ads vary in size and appear in all sections of
the newspaper except page one, the editorial page, obituary page, the classified
section, and the first page of major sections.

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One common variation of the display ad, the reading notice, looks like editorial
matter and sometimes costs more than normal display advertising. To prevent readers
from mistaking it for editorial matter, the world advertisement appears at the top.

Retailers often run newspaper ads through cooperative programmes sponsored by the
manufacturers whose products they sell. The manufacturers pay fully or partially to
create and run the ad, which features the manufacturer’s product and logo along with
the local retailer’s name and address.

Classified Advertisements
Classified ads provide a community marketplace for goods, services, and
opportunities of every type from real estate and new car sales to employment and
business opportunities. A newspaper’s profitability usually depends on a healthy
classified section. Classified ads usually appear under subheads that describe the
class of goods or the need the ads seek to satisfy. Most employment, housing, and car
advertising is classified.

Special Advertisements
Some special commodities and products are advertised under specific advertisements
columns. Sometimes, a few pages are devoted only to advertisements. They are well
planned and are in colour to draw the attention of readers. Advertisements are more
effective if they are specially intended for certain type so readers i.e. sportsmen,
women, professionals, etc.

Advertisements should be planned logically and judiciously to attract all type of

readers. The first page is read thoroughly. So advertisements on the first page attract
greater attention. The back page is equally good, but it follows the first page.
Similarly, the middle two pages are also read thoroughly. The third page is devoted to
local news. So, ads for local shops and manufacturers may be placed on the third
page, men read sports news, political news and these columns should be made,
keeping in mind their attitudes. Advertisements should meet the different
requirements of the different segments of the market.

Preprinted Inserts
Like magazines, newspapers carry preprinted inserts and deliver them to the
newspaper plant for insertion into a specific edition. Inserts sizes range from a typical
newspaper page to a double postcards, formats include catalogue, brochures, mail-
back devices, and perforated coupons.

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Some large metropolitan dailies allow advertisers to limit their inserts to specific
circulation zones. A retail advertiser that wants to reach only those shoppers in its
immediate trading area can place an insert in the local-zone editions. Retail stores,
auto dealers, large national advertisers, and other find it less costly to distribute their
circulars this way than to mail or deliver them door-to-door.

Public Notices
For a normal fee, newspapers carry legal public notices of changes in business and
personal relationships, public governmental reports, notices by private citizens and
organization, and financial reports. These ads follow a present format.

Advantages of Newspaper Advertising

Local advertising is in fact possible only in newspapers. Barring a few national
advertisements, newspapers contain mostly local advertisements. This is the biggest
advantage, for newspapers provide advertising in a geographically segmented market.
Local and regional newspapers offer news, editorial, entertainment, and personal
interest stories for local readers, which create an interest in the local community and
the region. The advertising message thus delivered in local or community newspaper
is most effective.

Tips for effective Ad Writing

Make your ad stand out

Classified ads that use art, layout and/or type in a distinctive way usually attract more
eyes than run-of-the-mill ads. Just check the paper - every day there are listings that
stand out from the others.

Use a prominent benefit headline

Choose the main benefit of your merchandise and feature it in a compelling headline.
Amplify this message in your subheads and copy. Avoid generalized quality claims.

Make your copy complete

This means two things: know what is important to people browsing in your classified
category, and make sure you touch on those points; and use complete sentences -
they're easier to read than a series of phrases and random words.

State a price or a range

Quote a price, even if it's high or low. If you're high, explain why it's worth it, and if
you're low-balling it, support it with facts that make it believable (for example:
moving, quick sale, special purchase).

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Specify brand names
If you are selling name brand merchandise, be sure to name the brand in the ad - the
more specific the better.

Include related items

Make two sales instead of one by offering related items along with a featured one.
For example, list golf bag with clubs, end tables with couches, frames with
mattresses.

Use a simple layout

Classified listings should not be crossword puzzles. A good ad layout is planned
logically and intuitively - it carries the reader's eye through headline, art, copy, price,
advertiser's name, and phone number.

Use a dominant element

A large visual or headline means your ad will be noticed. Photographs or realistic
drawings attract people, but nothing draws the eye like pictures of "real people”.

Let white space work for you

This is an important layout element in classified advertising because the average
classified page is heavy with small type. The more "empty" space in your ad, the
more it will naturally be noticed. Boxing an ad (adding a simple border around it)
automatically creates white space around it, which in turn automatically draws the
eye.

Urge the reader to act now

By ending your ad with a call to action such as "12 hour sale”, “this week only," or
"call now, won't last long"," you add extra incentive for the interested buyer to call
you first.

Checklist - Every classified should include:

• Type of sale
• Sale date or days and hours
• Price
• Make and model
• Size and color
• New, used or reconditioned
• Service or warranty
• Delivery details

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• Name, phone number
• Address or directions to location

Principles of good Advertisement

Advertisers and advertising agencies believe that customers have needs and desires,
which can be fulfilled through the purchase and use of products and services.
Advertising works largely through appeal of emotions of envy, fear, anxiety, about
one’s appearance and lack of status. It is widely assumed that advertising works if the
AIDCA formulas are followed. The formula sums up the principles of advertising.
The name of the formula is derived from the initial letters of the words: Attention,
Interest, Desire, Conviction, and Action.

The formula suggests that the attention and interests of the customers must be
gained first before the process of stimulating desire, imparting conviction and urging
action in advertisements can bring about a change in the buying behaviors.

We are not usually carried away by advertisements unless the products themselves
are of some value or use to us. After all, we do not have a lot of money to throw
around. Advertisements grab attention by their sizes, color, visualization layout,
positioning or by a striking headline or slogan or appeal.

Further, they stimulate desire for the product by various strategies such as making
you feel ‘exclusive’ or ‘modern’ or ‘ with-it’ or perhaps by offering discounts or
other incentives. Finally, advertisements impart conviction and urge action.

The importance of a good advertisement copy can hardly be overemphasized. All the
planning, research and expense would go waste if proper care were not taken in
drafting an advertisement copy that will achieve the purpose of advertising.

The psychological aims of an advertisement are that the public must be made to:
™ Look
™ Like
™ Learn, and
™ Buy

‘The aim of advertising copy is that it shall be seen, read the message conveyed
and then acted upon’. An advertisement, which fails in attracting the attention of the
prospects and creating an urge in their minds for possessing the product, will
naturally be of no use though a large sum has been spent lavishly on advertising the
product by the advertiser.
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A good advertisement should possess the following characteristics or qualities or
values:

1. Attention value - an advertisement must attract the attention of the potential

consumers. If it fails in this mission, the whole money and efforts will go waste
though it possesses all other values because everything else follows this. So, it
must have display value.

• Use of Pictures: pictures have the immense display and attention value.
The old Chinese proverb ‘one seeing is worth thousand selling’
indicated the place of pictures in attention value. A good sketch or
photograph, if appropriately used, will not merely attract the attention of
the consumer but all will tell everything about the product.
• Use of Display type or Heading: use of appropriate headings enhances
the value of an advertisement to a great extent. To invite attention, the
heading should be brief and meaningful, made up of three or four words
and should be printed in emphatic bold display types. The headline
should, generally, be in the form of a ‘slogan’ or a ‘query’ that will
compel the attention of the reader
• Boarder Type: attractive boarder can be used to compel the attention of
the readers. The boarder must have a distinctive look so as to separate it
from the rest of the setting, a full page advertisement with a very small
matter in the center and an artistic or novel boarder will have a very
great attention value. Underlining of key words or an attractive
arrangement of types may also catch the eyes of the reader.
• Price Quotation: prices should not be quoted on the advertisement copy
except when they are very low as in clearance sale or special offers. But
if an appeal is being made to high class customers who care more for
quality that for price, a price quotation should be avoided and emphasis
should be laid on quality
• Reply Coupons: reply coupons inserted in an advertisement in an
unusual setting are yet another way of attracting attention of the readers
to the copy.

2. Suggestion value- having attracted the attention of the reader, the next task
would be to offer a suggestion about the use and the utility of the product that
may remain inscribed on the mind of the reader even when he forget where he
really saw the advertisement.

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3. Memorizing value- the advertisement copy should be so drafted and laid out
that the product will stick to the mind of the individual reader. Repetition of
advertisement with slogan is an effective method of creating a memorizing
value. Pictures and photographs confirming to the suggestion will have
tremendous memorizing value.

4. Conviction value- an advertisement can prove effective and achieve the

desired end when convicting arguments backs the suggestion contained in it.
The advertiser must be careful not to include the statements in the
advertisement copy, which do not confirm to the product.

5. Sentimental appeal- sentiments play a very important role in advertising,

particularly in the case of food articles. Sentiments reflect the personal feelings
and attitudes of an individual towards various things. They indicate reactions
of a person in favour or against a particular product.

6. Education value- a good advertisement must possess educative value because

the object of modern advertising is not merely to satisfy the existing demand
but to create future demand. So a good advertisement should educate the
general public about the uses of the new product or the new uses of the same
product.

7. Instinctive value- human thoughts and actions are guided by instincts and
inclination. All that one thinks or does has its roots in one instinct or the other.
Instincts are the underlying forces, which compel the men to act in certain
ways. The most important function of an advertisement is to induce, persuade
and motivate the prospects to think well of a product and to take to its use.

a) Self-Preservation Instinct: many of our thoughts and actions

are inspired by our anxiety to preserve our people, health, our
family and our belongings
b) Hoarding Instinct: banking institutions, insurance companies
or other government and non-government saving organizations
serve to hoarding instinct of the people
c) Parental instinct: parental instinct takes the form of love and
affection for the children. Those advertisers who deal in children
requirements like garments, toys, baby food, etc may promote
this instinct in parents i.e. motherly feelings of women or
parental sentiments of men through their advertisements

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 d) Self-Display Instinct: the advertisers of readymade clothing,
women’s dresses, jewellery, etc promote instinct of self-display.
e) Something for nothing Instinct: everybody has a vague desire
to get something without paying anything for it. This desire is,
more or less, present in everybody irrespective of the statues or
income. Some advertisers use this instinct in the advertisement
copy.

On the basis of the above basic instincts, the following themes or central ideas may
be laid down for advertisements meant to advertise different types of products:

1. Pride- this theme can be used to popularize luxury articles among riches, the
possession of which gives them a distinctive status and a feeling of pride
2. Beauty- this theme is used in advertisement for cosmetics, perfumes, toilet
soaps, etc for both men and women
3. Health- in drug and food products advertisements, the use of this theme is used
4. Economy- it is central theme in advertisement of clearance sales or bargain
purchases
5. Comfort- the advertisements for fans, electric appliances, refrigerator, etc
contain this feeling of comfort
6. Fear- themes stressing the fear of death, accidents, personal loss through
burglary, fire, etc and other untoward happenings in life are generally used by
insurance companies or banking companies. The traffic police is also using this
theme in their notes of caution i.e. ‘life is short, don’t make it shorter’.
7. Parental affection- all advertisements of products meant for children such as
toys, baby food and dresses, use this feeling
8. Patriotism- this theme may be used in advertisements for those who use
foreign products
9. Achievements- this theme is used generally by large concerns engaged in the
production of goods necessary for the development of country’s economy.
10. Emulation and imitation- this theme is use where people buy more not to
satisfy their genuine requirement, but as their neighbors happen to possess
them

Thus, a good advertisement must possess the above qualities to make it an ideal one.

Regulations of an Advertisement

Advertising Regulation refers to the laws and rules defining the ways in which
products can be advertised in a particular region. Rules can define a wide number of

39
different aspects, such as placement, timing, and content. In the United States, false
advertising and health-related ads are regulated the most. Many communities have
their own rules, particularly for outdoor advertising. Sweden and Norway prohibits
domestic advertising that targets children. Some European countries don’t allow
sponsorship of children’s programs, no advertisement can be aimed at children under
the age of twelve, and there can be no advertisements five minutes before or after a
children’s programme is aired.

In the United Kingdom advertising of tobacco on television, billboards or at sporting

events is banned. It is also prohibited to advertise cars on the basis of how fast they
can move and the relationship which the event has with the sport seen as a healthy
pursuit, unlike smoking. Similarly alcohol advertisers in the United Kingdom are not
allowed to discuss in a campaign the relative benefits of drinking, in most instances
therefore choosing to focus around the brand image and associative benefits instead
of those aligned with consumption. There are many regulations throughout Europe as
well. Two of the most highly regulated forms of advertising are tobacco
advertising and alcohol advertising.

Regulation of Advertisement in India

“Kaash agar mera beta hota (if only I had a son),” laments a down-on-his-luck dad
in a television commercial for Hindustan Lever Ltd. HLL, London-based Unilever’s
Indian subsidiary, had to pull its commercials for Fair & Lovely fairness cream
following a complaint lodged with the National Human Rights Commission in New
Delhi.

Sun tanning may be trendy in western countries, but ‘skin lightening products have
been historically popular in Asia’. The commercial shows the advertised cream as a
solution to the dilemma faces by the dad’s dark-skinned daughter. After the product
lightens her skin, she is transformed into a successful career woman who can afford
the luxuries the dad desires. The All India Women’s Democratic Association filed a
complaint, arguing that the product may be ‘safe for the skin, but not for the society’.
Thus, the ad was seen as violating Cable Television Networks Act of 1995 and
directed not to air. This Act prohibits advertisements that negatively portray any race,
caste, color, creed, or nationality to depict women in a subordinate role. This incident
‘underscores changing social morals in India and highlights tensions between the
government and the Advertising Standards Council of India, an autonomous
industry group, over how to regulate Indian broadcast content, including advertising.

In order to monitor and control advertising a number of different regulatory bodies

have been established. Many countries have an Advertising Standards Authority,

40
whose job it is to listen to complaints from the public, and establish whether or not a
particular ad or campaign should be withdrawn.

‘Regulate yourself, or someone else will’

Most of the Self-Regulation Organizations around the world base their work on the
Codes prepared and published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
(The ASCI in India is no exception). The ICC is the world business organization, the
only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all
sectors in every part of the world.

It is the recognition of the advertising industry (i.e. advertisers, agencies and the
media) that advertising should be legal, decent, honest and truthful, with a sense of
social responsibility to the consumer and society as a whole, and with due respect to
the rules of fair competition. This is achieved through the establishment of a set of
rules and principles of best practice, which the advertising industry voluntarily agrees
to conform with.

The aim is to keep advertising standards high and ensure consumer trust, to the
benefit to all. Self-Regulation works best when framework legislation sets and
enforces the boundaries of what is unlawful. Likewise, the law operates to best effect
when it tackles issues of broad principle. Advertising is often detailed and subjective
in its claims and interpretation. Controls imposed upon it must be equally flexible.
Self-Regulation Organizations deal with a volume of work each year that, if disputed
in court, would be both prohibitively expensive and unacceptably slow to resolve.
The law and self-regulation working independently but in harmony, provide the
swiftest and most comprehensive protection for consumers.

The ASCI in India makes available, the benefit of Self-Regulation in Advertising in

India to all Practitioners in Advertising, at no charge to them, thanks to the 235 plus
members (firms) who maintain its Services through their Annual contributions and
more importantly with the positive responses of Compliance with the Objective and
Fair decisions of their autonomous Consumer Complaints Council (CCC), on
complaints (against Advertisements) which have been processed at their Secretariat.
Since 1986, 1335 complaints were upheld, the CCC having deliberated and decided
that these Ads contravened the ASCI Code, being Unfair to Consumers or to
Competitors. Because of Voluntary Self-Regulation, at least 79% of these Ads were
withdrawn, concluded, or modified appropriately so as to avoid contravention of the
Code and thereby respecting the Rights of Consumers and Competitors.

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In recent years the quantity of false, misleading and offensive advertising has resulted
in consumers having an increasing disbelief in advertising, and a growing
resentment of it. Misleading, false advertising also constitutes unfair competition. It
could lead to market-place disaster or even litigation. If this kind of advertising
continues, it won’t be long before statutory regulations and procedures are imposed
which make even fair, truthful, decent advertising cumbersome if not impossible.
This certainly will affect ability to compete and grow.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) (1985) has adopted a Code
for Self-Regulation in Advertising. It is a commitment to honest advertising and to
fair competition in the market place. It stands for the protection of the legitimate
interests of consumers and all concerned with advertising - advertisers, media,
advertising agencies, and others who help in the creation or placement of
advertisements.

As the Code becomes increasingly accepted and observed pro-actively, three things
will begin to happen.

• Fewer false, misleading claims

• Fewer unfair advertisements
• Increasing respectability

It means more freedom for to practice the craft or carry on one’s business effectively.
As a member of ASCI, one can mould the course of Self-Regulation and participate
in the protection of healthy, effective advertising. One can have a say, through the
Board of Governors, in the further development of the Code and future appointments
to the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC). Membership of the ASCI (open only to
Firms) entitles one to appoint a nominee to discharge functions as a member,
including standing for election to the Board of Governors and voting at general
meetings.

In India, as in several advanced economies, there is only One Body for Self-
Regulation in Advertising – the ASCI, which is concerned with safeguarding the
interests of consumers whilst monitoring/guiding the commercial communications of
Practitioners in Advertising on behalf of advertisers, for advertisements carried by the
Media, in their endeavors to influence buying decisions of the Consuming Public.

This Code for Self-Regulation has been drawn up by people in professions and
industries or in connected with advertising, in consultation with representatives of
people affected by advertising and has been accepted by individuals, corporate bodies

42
and associations engaged in or otherwise concerned with the practice of advertising
with the following as basic guidelines with a view to achieve the acceptance of fair
advertising practices in the best interests of the ultimate consumer:

• To ensure the truthfulness and honesty of representations and claims made

by advertisements and to safeguard against misleading advertisements
• To ensure that advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted
standards of public decency. Advertisements should contain nothing indecent,
vulgar, or repulsive, which is likely, in the light of generally prevailing
standards of decency and propriety, to cause grave or widespread offence.
• To safeguard against the indiscriminate use of Advertising in situations or
of the promotion of products, which are regarded as hazardous or harmful to
society or to individuals, particularly minors, to a degree or of a type, which is
unacceptable to society at large.
• To ensure that advertisements observe fairness in competition so that the
consumer’s need to be informed on choices in the market place and the canons
of generally accepted competitive behavior in business is both served. Both the
general public and an advertiser’s competitors have an equal right to expect the
content of advertisements to be presented fairly, intelligibly, and responsibly.
The Code applies to advertisers, advertising agencies, and media.

The responsibility for the observance of this Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising
lies with all who commission, create, place or publish any advertisement or assist
in the creation or publishing of any advertisement. All advertisers, advertising
agencies and media are expected not to commission, create, place, or publish any
advertisement, which is in contravention of this Code. This is a self-imposed
discipline required under this Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising from all
involved in the commissioning, creation, placement or publishing of advertisements.

This Code applies to advertisements read, heard, or viewed in India even if they
originate or are published abroad so long as they are directed to consumers in India or
are exposed to significant number of consumers in India.

An advertisement is defined as a paid-for communication, addressed to the public

or a section of it, the purpose of which is to influence the opinions or behavior of
those to whom it is addressed.

Thus, any written or graphic matter on packaging, or contained in it, is subject to this
Code.

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Advertising is an important and legitimate means for the seller to awaken interest in
his products. The success of advertising depends on public confidence. Hence no
practice should be permitted which tends to impair this confidence.

How to tell a Big Idea

‹ “There is no formula to arrive at an idea. The creative idea just happens in the
mind, and no one can teach how these things can be made to happen.”
‹ Will the Big idea make the target audience stand up & take notice?

‹ Is the Big Idea relevant to their lives?

‹ Is the Big Idea fresh and provocative?

‹ Does it meet the consumer’s expectations convincingly?

‹ Is it motivating?

‹ Is it believable?

‹ Does it position the brand clearly & distinctively?

‹ Can the brand be recognized & identified easily?

How can we develop BIG IDEA?

‹ Collect Information: First step to collect information about Product, Services &
company, the industry, target market and the competition.
‹ Keep competitors positioning and creative concept in front of you
‹ Advertising is all about positioning, that is creating, maintaining and reinforcing
the positioning in the minds of the customer
‹ This info will assist you in the identifying the gap in the market place which could
be the basis of your creative concepts.
‹ Write down all ideas
‹ Do not discard the ideas
‹ Brainstorm
‹ Focus on customers benefit
‹ A benefit can be presented as a promise, reason-why and as a unique selling
proposition (USP). A promise suggests how the customers will benefit after he
buys the product or service
‹ Look beyond the obvious
‹ Think differently
‹ Keep communication simple
‹ Keep in short

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Advertising Copy
Create a basic concept

Create a SMP first

Create a basic idea based on your SMP
Think about the Art direction

Space as visual space

Every space in a layout has a visual form of space. So Art direction also takes a
visual space. Look of the Art direction should also communicate. Look for Art
direction that communicates your basic concepts.

Your Art direction should communicate through its Layout, character, colour & the
kind of space it takes in the Layout as visual form. It should talk about anything like
light, serious, wary, nostalgic, upbeat, spiritual, technical, fun etc.

Think about colour in Art direction. Colour talks a lot about the communication, so as
like others elements design, the colour is also a very important part of Visual
communication.

Copywriting
Copywriting is the process of expressing the value and benefits a brand has to offer,
via written or verbal descriptions. Copywriting requires far more than the ability to
string product descriptions together in coherent sentences. One apt description of
copywriting is that it is a never-ending search for ideas combined with a never-
ending search for new and different ways to express those ideas.

Creative Plan
Creative plan is a guideline used during the copywriting process to specify the
message elements that must be coordinated during the preparation of copy. These
elements include main product claims, creative devices, media that will be used, and
special creative needs a product or service might have. One of the main challenges
faced by a copywriter is to make creative sense out of the maze of information that
comes from the message development process. Part of the challenge is creating
excitement around what can otherwise be dull product features.

Purposes of Headline
„ Emphasize a brand claim.
„ Give advice to the reader.

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„ Select prospects.
„ Stimulate the reader’s curiosity.
„ Set a tone or establish an emotion.
„ Identify the brand.

Guidelines for Writing Headlines

„ Make the headline a major persuasive component of the ad. Five times as many
people read the headline as the body copy of an ad. If this is your only opportunity
to communicate, what should you say? The Headline “New Power in a Chrysler ad
communicates major improvements in the product quickly and clearly.
„ Appeal to the reader’s self -interest with a basic promise of benefits coming from
the brand. For example,” The Temperature Never Drops below Zerex” promises
engine protection in freezing weather from Zerex antifreeze.
„ Inject the maximum information in the head-line without making it cumbersome or
wordy.
„ Limit headlines to about five to eight words. Research indicates that recall drops
off significantly for sentences longer than eight words.

Guidelines for Writing Headlines

„ Include the brand name in the headline.
„ Entice the reader to read the body copy
„ Entice the reader to examine the visual in the ad. An intriguing headline can lead
the reader to carefully examine the visual components of the ad.
„ Never change the typeface in a headline. Changing the form and style of the print
can increase the complexity of visual impression and negatively affect the
readership.
„ Never use a headline whose persuasive impact depends on reading the body copy.
„ Use simple, common, familiar words. Recognition and comprehension are aided
by words that are easy to understand and recognize
„ A subhead consists of a few words or a short sentence and usually appears above
or below the headline. It includes important brand information not included in the
headline. The subhead in the ad is used to convey important brand information not
communicated in the headline. A subhead serves basically the same purpose as a
headline - to communicate key selling points or brand information quickly. A
subhead is normally in print larger than the body copy, but smaller than the
headline. In many cases, the subhead is lengthier than the headline and can be
used to communicate more complex selling points. The subhead should reinforce
the headline and, again, entice the reader to proceed to the body copy.

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Guidelines for Writing Body Copy
„ Use the present tense whenever possible.
„ Use singular nouns and verbs.
„ Use active verbs.
„ Use familiar words and phrases.
„ Vary the length of sentences and paragraphs.
„ Involve the reader.
„ Provide support for the unbelievable
„ Avoid clichés & support

Radio advertising format

„ Music format
„ Dialogue format
„ Announcement format
„ Celebrity announcer Format

Guidelines for Writing Radio Copy

„ Use common, familiar language.
„ Use short words and sentences.
„ Stimulate the imagination.
„ Repeat the name of the product.
„ Stress the main selling point or points.
„ Use sound and music with care.
„ Tailor the copy to the time, place, and specific audience

Television advertising format

„ Demonstration Format
„ Problem & solution format
„ Music & song format
„ Spokesperson format
„ Dialogue format
„ Vignette format
„ Narrative format

Guidelines for Writing Television copy

„ Use the video
„ Support the video
„ Coordinate the audio with the video
„ Sell the product as well as entertain the audience
„ Be flexible use copy judiciously

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„ Reflect the brand personality image
„ Build campaigns

Television Commercial
Commercial: Advertising message on radio or television. Also known as a spot or
announcement. Often abused by an announcer in a program who introduces the
message as “a word from the sponsor.”

Television is first and foremost a visual medium and must be so considered from the
very inception of an idea. The ability to make the creative connection between visual
and verbal (which includes all the possibilities of sound mixing) is a do-or die skill
for the copywriter.

How to do a simple Television commercial (TVC)

• Know about the client
• What does the client do
• What does client wants to project
• What is the Clients profile
• What is the Brands stands for
• What is brands family format
• Do research
• Do proper research before starting the thinking process which will help in
conceptualizing the idea with proper rational support

Create a basic concept

• Create a SMP first
• Create a basic idea based on your SMP
• Think about the TVC as audio visual medium
• Every TVC is basically audio visual medium by which you will communicate
Brand communication or inform about the Brand, product or service. So TVC
should also communicate brand perspective
• Look for conceptualization that communicate your basic concepts

Your Art direction in TVC should communicate through its Visualization, character,
color & the kind of look & feel of TVC it takes in the Television as visual form
should talk about anything like light, serious, wary, nostalgic, upbeat, spiritual,
technical, fun etc.

48
Think about storyline, art direction, and audio, characterization for Brand endorser or
celebrity or models. Storyline will communicate the full idea of TVC with the
support of Audio visual media.

Planning for writing advertising copy Strategy for TVCs are:

„ What is the Company’s image? Is it Folksy, one of utility, or the one of luxury?
„ What are the specific Channels on which the TVCs will run? What programmes
will our TVCS precede or follow?
„ Who makes up the audience for which you are writing? Will it be children,
teenagers, middle-aged women, men, senior citizens, tennis players, etc?
„ What is the product about which you are writing? What is its USP and its major
benefit?
„ What is the objective of the campaign?

How TVCs is written:

„ A TVC is written in script form with vertically parallel copy. A dividing line
appears on the printed form, right down the middle of the sheet. On the right, the
“audio” is typed. This obviously means everything that is to be heard & includes:
announcer copy, the selling messages, and desired sound effects.

The Storyboard
„ The storyboard is a preprinted drawing pad with a series of panels in double series.
Series of drawings used to present the sequence of scenes for a proposed television
commercial. Consists of illustrations of key action (video); scene-by-scene is
accompanied by the audio part to go with it. Used for advertiser approval after its
use as a guide to production.
Some common techniques employed by TV producers and directors are given here:

‹ The Demonstration Show the product in use. Actually show dirty clothes get
clean after being soaked in Brand X detergent. Example: Whisper sanitary
napkins.
‹ The Testimonial Very believable when someone you know or admire appears
on the box and swears that Brand X is the ONLY on for him/her.
‹ Examples Nawab of Pataudi for Gwalior Suiting
‹ Vishwanath the chess champion, for NIIT
‹ Sachin Tendulkar for Visa Credit Cards
‹ Slice of Life Actual real-life situations which the viewer can easily identify
with ( the ma\in\law/ daughter\in\law scenes, the child winning a race in school

49
 sports, the husband gulping down his breakfast before he leaves for work).
Example Maruti Esteem) father/son
‹ Humor Never fails to appeal, if used with taste and flair. Subtlety preferred to
corn. Must be relevant to the brand. It should spring naturally from the
situation, not forced. Example: Nokia’s talking statues
‹ Visual Mnemonic The frequent use of a visual burr (device to and memory)
that becomes a part of the Brand property. Like the dilated images in the bottle
of Smirnoff Vodka. Unforgettable!
‹ The TV Jingle A tune that becomes identified with your brand, so catchy
everyone’s humming it. Most commonly used technique, but very effective,
given our national love of music. Examples: Titan watches, Apollo Tires,
Bacardi rum
‹ Computer Graphics This is effective when technology is used not just for its
own sake but as a vehicle for the Big idea.
‹ Comparison A seldom-exploited technique, which could be very powerful in
bringing out a brand's competitive edge. Example: Captain Cook salt Vs Tata
salt
‹ Lifestyle Consumer parity products, such as cigarettes, cold drinks and textiles
have to depend on unique selling lifestyle rather than on unique selling
propositions! Example: Weekender jeans? Casual wear
‹ Problem solution Where the focus is on a consumer problem and presents a
demonstrate solution! Example: Clinic all-clear dandruff shampoo
‹ Problem solution Where the focus is on a consumer problem and presents a
demonstrate solution! Example: Clinic all-clear dandruff shampoo

Storyboard
Storyboards are a form of sequential art, often used to communicate a narrative. It is
considered preproduction art, that is, it's used to help creators make a final product
like a film or commercial. They may look like comics and "read" like comics, but
their purposes are much different.

Film and TV directors and writers may draw storyboards to map out their ideas for
scenes. Or, they may hire storyboard artists to create storyboards of their ideas. Also,
comic book artists or graphic novelists may outline the chapters of their comics or
books using storyboards. In your case, you need to make storyboards to pitch an idea
for a TV commercial.

Storyboards are usually quickly-rendered (after all, they're usually used only in-
house). Though they may include text or dialogue, their main purpose is to help the
viewer visualize the final product, whether it be a film, TV commercial or comic.

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Technical skills

„ To make great-looking storyboards, it's good to have some basic drawing

skills. Though many great directors get by with simple stick figures, it is
recommended that you learn the following skills:
Rendering. Learn how to sketch people, place and things from life, references and
imagination. The best way is to take a class and PRACTICE drawing as well as
how to see 3-D things as 2-D shapes.
„ Perspective or making things look right as they recede in space.
Basic human anatomy, an invaluable skill, with countless interesting subjects in
the world around you.
Composition, value, light, contrast, and other basic art skills to make your art
realistic and interesting.
Basic color theory if you'll be working in color.

Conceptual skills

„ Telling a story without any words can be harder than you think. Thus, a great
storyboard artist should:
Master sequential art. Different people can see different stories in the same
images. Learn how to best create highly narrative, communicative and expressive
storyboards. Try this simple exercise: gather found images (from newspapers,
magazines, calendars, etc) and sequence 10-15 of them so they tell a story. Present
them to different people and ask them what they saw. Compare their versions with
yours.
Be concise. Storyboards work best when the panels "read" easily.
Be expressive. Emphasize tones, emotions or drama. Let your lines, inking and
coloring reinforce the mood of the narrative.

Professional skills

„ OK, maybe you can draw like Renoir, and tell visual stories like Robert
Crumb, but that doesn’t mean you need not consider the presentation of your
art. Remember, if you show people that you take your art seriously, they'll be more
inclined to take you and your art seriously too.
Mount your storyboard on a clean, heavy black matte board. Leave a generous
margin to showcase your art. If you crop the art or the board, use a sharp razor and
straight edge/ruler to make clean cuts. Use adhesives (like spray mount or rubber
cement) which will not leave a sticky mess or uneven surface. If you have several
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 pages, mount them consistently: use the same sized boards and with the same
margins.
Protect your art. If you did a pencil drawing, apply fixative so it looks fresh and
sharp for your presentation. Apply a coat of acrylic varnish to acrylic paintings.

What is Brand Positioning

A brand positioning statement reflects where the brand stands in the market place and
what the manufacturer believes his product to be. It represents manufacturers’
viewpoint, whereas advertising statements reflects to us the consumer’s viewpoint.

Media of Advertising
So far, you have learnt that advertisements are communicated by using some media
like, newspaper, journals, radio, television, etc. Some commonly used media of
advertising are:

Print Media Electronic Media Other Media

9 Newspapers
9 Radio
9 Hoardings
9 Periodicals
9 Television
9 Posters
9 Internet
9 Vehicular Displays

(A) Print Media

Print media is a very commonly used medium of advertising by businessman. It
includes advertising through newspaper, magazines, journals, etc. and is also called
press advertising.

1. Newspapers
You must have read Newspapers. In our country newspapers are published in
English, Hindi and in other regional languages. These are the sources of news,
opinions and current events. In addition, Newspapers are also a very common
medium of advertising. The advertiser communicates his message through newspaper
which reaches to crores of people.

2. Periodicals or magazines
Periodicals are publications which come out regularly but not on a daily basis. These
may be published on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or even

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yearly basis. For example you must have come across magazines and journals like
Onlooker, India Today, Frontline, Yojana, Swagat, Femina, etc. published regularly
in English. Grihasobha, Nandan and Champak in Hindi.

Similarly there are also periodicals in Hindi and other regional languages. All these
periodicals have a large number of readers and thus, advertisements published in
them reach a number of people.

(B) Electronic Media

This is a very popular form of advertising in the modern day marketing. This includes
Radio, Television and Internet.

2. Television Advertising
With rapid growth of information technology and electronic media, television has
topped the list among the media of advertising. TV has the most effective impact as it
appeals to both eye and the ear. Products can be shown, their uses can be
demonstrated and their utilities can be told over television. Just like radio,
advertisements are shown in TV during short breaks and there are also sponsored
programmes by advertisers.

3. Internet
Are you aware about Internet? In fact it is the latest method of communication and
gathering information. If you have a computer, and with an access to Internet you can
have information from all over the world within a fraction of second. Through
Internet you can go to the website of any manufacturer or service provider and gather
information. Sometimes when you do not have website addresses you take help of
search engines or portals. In almost all the search engines or portals different
manufactures or service providers advertise their products.

(C) Other Media

All the media of advertising discussed above are mostly used by consumers while
they are at home or inside any room, except radio and newspapers or magazines to
some extent. Moreover in all these media, the consumer has also to spend some
money to access the advertisement. However, there are other media available, where
the consumer has to spend nothing and he can. See such advertisements while
moving outside. Some of such advertising are hoardings, posters, vehicular displays,
gift items, etc.

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1. Hoardings
While moving on roads you must have seen large hoardings placed on iron frames or
rooftops or walls. These are normally boards on which advertisements are painted or
electronically designed so that they are visible during day or night. The advertisers
have to pay an amount to the owners of the space, where the hoardings are placed.
2. Posters
Poster are printed and posted on walls, buildings, bridges etc to attract the attention of
customers. Posters of films, which are screened on cinema halls, are a common sight
in our country.
3. Vehicular displays
You must have seen advertisements on the public transport like buses, trains, etc.
Unlike hoardings, these vehicles give mobility to advertisements and cover a large
number of people.
4. Gift Items from manufacturers
When you buy a cycle, the shopkeeper sometimes gives you a key ring to hold the
cycle key. Some jewelers give small purse or boxes when you buy jewellery.
Sometimes manufacturers give diaries, calendars, purse, etc. to buyers and
prospective customers. In all these items the name, address and telephone number of
the manufacturer, or trader or service provider as well as descriptions of the products
in which they deal in are printed. These items are normally items of daily use given
freely to the customers. While using, the user remembers the products as well as the
producer.

Media Planning

Media Planning comprises of decisions made to answer the question, “what are the
best means of delivering ads to prospective purchasers of my brand or service?’

A good media plan needs to address the following issues:

How many audiences is the media plan proposing to reach?

What are the best media to place the ads in?
How many times should be the ads appear?
What would the ideal media mix be?
Which geographical regions should ads appears in?
How should the budget appropriation for various media thus chosen be made?

What is POP or POS

„ This is an advertising medium that is placed at or near the purchase area.
„ It is free of physical limitations.

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What does a POP wants to achieve
„ It increases the urge for buying
„ It creates awareness about the product
„ It attract attention towards display of product
How does POP helps in Brand building exercise
„ It creates brand awareness
„ While shopping consumer always surrounded by Brands
How to create a POP?
„ Know about the client
„ Do research
„ Create a basic concept
„ Create a Dummy depending on Clients requirement
„ Think about mobility of POP
Know about the client
• What does the client do
• What does client wants to project
• Is the POP based on master Campaign
• What is the Brands stands for
• What is brands family colour

Do research
• Do proper research before starting the thinking process which will help in
conceptualizing the idea with proper rational support

Create a basic concept

• Create a SMP first
• Create a basic idea based on your SMP
Create a 3D Dummy layout of POP
• Creat A 3D Dummy Layout which Project Master Campaign concept with Proper
Brand Family colours

Think about mobility of POP

• Every POP looks good if it has good concept

• Every POP looks good if it has good Colour scheme
• Every POP looks good if it has good mobile structure

Different forms of POP

• Dangler
• Bunting

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• Poster
• Wobblers
• Product dispenser
• Shelf strip
• Shelf tucker
• Big cutouts
• Interactive display items
• Glow signs
• Billboards
• Inflated balloons

Dangler

Dangler is a form of inshop advertising media, which can be any shape & form
means any form of die cut is allowed. It will be dandled through thread. Economical
size for Dangler is W: 9” by H: 13”

Bunting

Bunting is also a another form of inshop advertising media, which can be any shape
& form means any form of die cut is allowed, but in a series of three or five. It will be
dangled through thread in sequence
Economical size for Bunting is W: 7” by H: 9” each form

Poster

Poster is also another form of inshop advertising media, which can be vertical or
horizontal in shape, even circular or oval shape is also innovative. It will be pasted in
wall or any surface
Economical size for Poster is W: 9” by H:14”or W: 14” by H:19” or W: 17” by H:
22”

Wobblers

Wobblers is also a another form of in shop advertising media, which can be any
shape, which always wobble in Inshop
Economical size for Wobblers is W: 3” by H:3”or W: 5” by H:5”

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Product dispenser

Product dispenser is also another form of in shop advertising media, where you can
display your products side by side. This can be any size or any form.
Create a Dangler or Bunting or Poster by using Newspaper only

Shelf strip

Shelf strip is also a another form of in shop advertising media, which can be any
shape, pasted below the shelf where product is displayed
Economical size for Shelf Strip is W: 12” by H:2”
Big cutouts

Big cutouts is also a another form of in shop advertising media, which can be any
shape, depending on brand communication
Size as per space provided

Interactive display items

interactive display items is also a another form of in shop advertising media, where
you can display your products side by side you can have interaction with consumer
through computers or any other media. This can be any size or any form

Glow signs

Glow signs is also a another form of in shop advertising media, which can glow
through any light source
Economical size for glow signs is 1:2 or 1:3

Inflated balloons

Inflated balloons are also another form of in shop advertising media, which can be
any shape, which always floating on air.
Any size depending with clients requirement

In shop Promotions
• Different kinds of in shop promotions are possible like giveaways, gifts, T-
shirts etc.
• Any size depending with clients requirement

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Print Production

What is printing
„ Printing is the process of manufacturing multiple copies of graphic images.
Although most people think off printing as ink on paper, printing is not limited to
any particular materials or inks.

Printing Processes

„ The basic principle of offset lithography is that ink and water don’t mix. When
plates are exposed, an ink receptive area is activated for the image. Water is
applied to the plate and adheres to the non-printing areas and ink to the image
areas. The image is transferred from the plate to a blanket, which subsequently
prints, on the paper. Relatively new on the scene is waterless offset, requiring
special plates and ink cooling systems.

Before printing the job what are the elements you should know?
„ Know about the client
„ Do research
„ Create a basic concept
„ Create a Dummy depending on Clients requirement
„ Think about mobility of Printing

Four Major printing process

• Relief Printing
• Intaglio Printing
• Screen Printing
• Litho graphics Printing

Relief Printing
The relief process includes letterpress printing, flexographic printing, and all other
methods of transferring an image from a raised surface. Most relief printing done
today is done flexography. Flexography printing is used extensively in the packaging
industry for printing in corrugated board, paper cartons, and plastic films

Intaglio Printing
Intaglio printing is the reverse of the relief concept. An intaglio image is transferred
from a sunken surface. Copper plate etching and engraving are two types of Intaglio
Process. Gravure is a form of Intaglio. Gravure is used for extremely long press runs.

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Foil candy bar packaging is used by gravure. Readers Digest & National Geography
printed in the form of Gravure Process

Screen Printing
Screen printing transfers an image by allowing ink to pass through openings in a
stencil that has been applied to screen mesh. It’s also called silk screen printing.
Plastic containers, Stationery paper matters, large display samples being printed by
this format.

Lithography Printing
• Lithographic image is transferred from a flat surface. Certain areas on the surface
are chemically treated to accept ink, and other areas are left untreated so that they
will repel ink. When paper contacted with surface, ink is transferred to the paper.
This process also called planography, offset lithography, or photo-offset
lithography. Most of the Newspaper, Magazine paper printing done on this offset
lithography process

Digital printing
When an electronic file is output directly, with no intermediate film stage, the process
is called digital printing. Digital color presses use electro photography and print with
toners or special inks, and all of them are capable of sheet-to-sheet personalization of
images and text, commonly known as variable-data printing. Another output process,
direct imaging, occurs when a plate is imaged directly on a special lithographic press.

Letterpress
Formerly the standard printing process, this is now used for specialty work such as
numbering, imprinting, die cutting, stamping, and embossing. Letterpress is still used
for fine art prints, limited edition books, and posters. The image area is raised above
the surface of the non-printing areas and prints directly on the paper.

Flexography
Often called flexo, this is a versatile process that uses molded rubber or etched photo-
polymer plates that carry the image, similar to letterpress, on a raised surface that
prints directly on the substrate. Advances in all parts of the process make flexo well-
suited to any substrate supplied in rolls including paper, films, box boards, and
newsprint. Common uses are for labels, tags, envelopes, cartons, and newspapers.

Gravure
In this process, all images, including type, are screened by tiny cells etched into
cylinders. These cells vary in depth and width and are below the non-printing areas.

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The cylinder rotates through a bath of ink and the non-printing areas are wiped clean
by a doctor blade before the image is directly applied to the substrate. Gravure is used
for long runs, including publications and packaging.

Screen printing
Formerly known as silk-screen, this is generally used for short runs, but modern
automatic equipment has increased the run lengths. Because the process lays a thick
film of ink, it is ideal for brilliant colors and fluorescent inks that require a lot of
pigment to be deposited. The image is carried on a stretched screen of fabric or fine
mesh wire. Ink is deposited on the screen and forced through the image areas by a
squeegee onto the substrate. Some screen presses can print very large images on
almost any material for point-of-sale displays, exhibits, posters, and even
dimensional objects such as glassware and containers.

Variations on lithography or letterpress

Thermograph
By an in-line attachment, this process deposits a resin on the wet ink and heats it,
resulting in a raised image.

Steel die engraving

Used for securities, currency, and fine stationery. The image, applied directly to the
paper and carried below the surface of the plate, is called a die. The non-printing
areas are wiped clean. A handmade counter die pushes the substrate somewhat into
the die, giving a telltale impression on the back of the sheet and a raised image on the
front.

Reprographics
Reprographics general term covering copying and duplicating. Think in-house
copying departments and copy or quick-printing shops. They take your originals and
make duplicates of them.

Resolution - pixels, dpi...what does it all mean?

„ Resolution and Dpi are terms that are thrown around often as in “this image is high

resolution” or “that photo is 300dpi”. But what does that mean? Not much.
„ “High Resolution” is a subjective term, and “dpi” has little meaning without a

measurement in size (usually inches or centimeters) attached to it.

„ The term Pixels is pretty easy to grasp, since webmasters and graphic designers

often work in pixels. Although, how pixels relate to print design can be a bit
confusing.
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„ The relationship between resolution, dpi, and pixels can be displayed in a chart:
„ (Don’t get scared off because there is math involved below...its really simple, I
promise.)
„ 1600 divided by 300 = 5.5
1200 divided by 300 = 4
„ An image that is 1600 x 1200 pixels on your monitor will print 5.5 x 4 inches at
300 dpi. Which means that image of 1600 x 1200 printed at 150 dpi would be 11 x
8 inches.
„ So, what is the resolution of that image? Well, its 5.5 x 4 inches at 300 dpi.
„ 300dpi - Magazines, high-quality brochures, business cards, photos and other
spiffy glossy material.
„ 100-200dpi - Newsprint, tabloids, and media that is coarser or absorbs a lot of ink.

Radio Advertising
The Power of Radio
„ Hear the Difference
„ Radio is a linear medium where one sound follows another in real time. Because
you can't rewind it or reread it, it must be clear and concise.
„ Audio messages resonate in the listeners mind. This is called echoic retention, and
it provides better recall and longer staying power than visual images. When you
send your message to the consumer via Radio, you're literally getting into their
heads.
„ Radio is a non-fixed attention medium, allowing listeners to be working, driving,
jogging or cooking while listening.

Get Personal
„ Radio is an intimate medium where listeners build a one-on-one relationship with

on-air personalities. Studies show that this familiarity builds strong loyalties
between listeners and stations. Radio's texture is unique. People don't perceive it as
sensational but as human and genuine in nature. Radio speaks with a very personal
voice: an important point to consider when creating your message.

As Individual As You Are

„ Unlike other media, Radio visuals are created in the listener's imagination,
resulting in a more intimate and memorable experience. Like the imagination, its
visual potential is limitless.
„ Have you ever heard a friend say, "The book was better than the movie"? Rarely
can pictures compete with the images created in one's mind. Better still, Radio
visuals aren't restrained by the conventions of time, place, and budget.

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„ The key to effective Radio advertising is to understand the potency of the medium.

The Creative Brief

„ An effective Radio ad hits the listener with a punch that's surprising and relevant.
Its success begins with the right brief.
„ A great Radio brief is uncomplicated and honest, revealing the direct benefit of
buying or using your product.
„ A great brief doesn't read like an ad. Instead, it answers two questions: "What do
people think of your product now?" and “What would you like them to think about
your product after they hear your Radio commercial?"

Don't Confuse Technique with Idea

„ Study after study indicates that people perceive Radio as warm, earthy and real,
while TV is perceived as glamorous, shallow and false. Great Radio ads embrace
these strengths, using carefully honed techniques.
„ Great Radio ads begin with a solid Radio idea, with strong visual content. This
should be in place before choosing an execution technique. If you begin by saying
"I think I'll do a jingle" or "Maybe I'll do a monologue," odds are you'd end up
with a dull, formulaic spot…

Idea Creation
„ Influential Factors
„ There you are - sitting in front of a blank page/screen, your mind is empty,
deadline is tight, budget is small, asking yourself, now what do I do? Before you
begin, you might want to consider the following:
„ Do I know enough about my target audience? What is the single most important
message I want to communicate?
„ What do I want listeners to do once they've heard my ad?
„ Is my approach a Radio idea?
„ Is my idea consistent with my brand identity? Have I considered what type of
person listens to the station that's running my ad?
„ What might Listeners be doing when they hear my ad? Where will they be?
„ How often will a Listener hear my commercial? How will I assess the ad's
effectiveness?
„ Get to know the people you're talking to. Picture them. What are they wearing?
Are they alone? Are they talking to friends?
„ Focus your ad on a single idea; limit your brief to one selling point. If a support
point is necessary, limit it to one per 30-second commercial and two for a 60-
second ad. If possible, spread them out over a campaign. In short: the more you
say, the fewer listeners hear.

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„ Make sure any characters in the script are compatible with the "nature" of Radio:
warm, genuine, and real; people who talk to the listener, not at them.
„ Whenever possible, be flexible with time lengths. Because it's a linear medium, the
best Radio ideas need time to establish themselves.
„ Take the key point of your message, and imagine yourself explaining it to your
listeners. What is their response? Do they believe you?

Writing the Copy

„ Now that you have a beginning and an end to your idea, write your opening line.
Make sure it gets their attention. Now, fill in the middle. When you've finished,
read what you've written out loud. Then trim it down by a third.
„ Now test it on a colleague. Do they laugh when they should? Do they get involved?
Do they understand what you're trying to communicate? Do they know what you
want them to do?

Underwrite
„ If your script is meant to be 60 seconds in length, whittle it down so it can be read
comfortably in 45 seconds.
„ This loosens the pace, allowing listeners to become involved, creating their own
mental pictures.
„ Radio happens in the studio. Underwriting gives the producer room to breathe.
Actors will have time to react and improvise. Overwriting strangles the process.
„ Whatever you write, make sure it contains a surprise. And make sure that surprise
will work on Radio.

Duration
„ No two messages are identical: consider this when you choose the length of your
ad.
„ 60-second commercials allow you time to present a complete selling message, or
develop a dramatization.
„ 30-second commercials demand precision, and should pack a punch.
„ 15-second commercials jog the memory and are best placed at trigger times. They
are also valuable as 'teasers' preceding a campaign, or 'trailers' programmed at the
end of an ad break that began with the full-length sales message.

Convert Hearing to Listening

„ Get intimate with Radio. It's emotional. Personal. Friendly. It's everywhere - an
intrusive little medium that slips into your car, your office, and your jogging
shorts! Top-of-mind awareness is commonly considered the holy grail of

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 marketing. You won't get there with the occasional ad. One option is to advertise a
high frequency of commercials with multiple ads running in rotation.
„ In fact, with every campaign it's a good idea to take a good hard look at your copy,
and determine how long and how often it can air without irritating the listener.

Some Radio Don'ts

„ Don't offend listeners by shouting at them, talking down to them, or boring them.
„ Don't create the ad for you: create it for your listeners.
„ Don't allow any confusion about who you are, what you do, and how it benefits
the listener.
„ Don't try to do too much at once. Focus on a single thought. Direct the listener
elsewhere for details.
„ Don't repeat the product name x number of times just because someone told you
that's what makes a successful Radio ad.
„ Don't include phone numbers and addresses. They're easily forgotten, and clutter
your core message. Instead, direct listeners to the white pages, give them a location
benchmark (e.g. across from the Sky Dome) or provide a web address.

Voice Talent
„ Don't underestimate the importance of the right voice talent. In a TV commercial,
there is a Copy Director and an Art Director; the Copy Director writes the
commercial and the Art Director oversees the visuals. In Radio, the Copywriter
creates the script, while the art is directed by the nuances of delivery.

Celebrity
„ Though expensive, celebrities can be an excellent way to brand your product,
contributing instant recognition, value and status to the campaign. But, there are
risks involved. You can't control the image of a celebrity after they've been
associated with your brand.
„ Charlton Heston to do a beer campaign, he had the stature of Moses. When he was
subsequently elected President of the National Rifle Association, his public image,
to many, changed. High profile personalities are usually loved or hated: something
to consider before attaching a celebrity to your brand.
„ In visual media celebrities are judged by their appearance. In Radio, they seem to
be judged by their character, so cast them for their character rather than superficial
qualities. For example, Baywatch is the most watched TV program in the world,
but Pamela Sue Anderson is not easily recognizable on the Radio.

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Music
„ Music is a powerful, emotional tool. Unlike words or symbols, it's processed in the
associative part of the brain, giving it a stronger, lingering effect on the memory.
„ Consumers make their purchase decisions based on emotions. Music in Radio ads
can effectively associate an appropriate emotion with your product. Your copy
content (i.e. jingle) will also be associated with the music, which acts as a rocket
Launcher when that information becomes relevant.
„ Different types of music trigger different emotions. Major chords create a positive
'happy' feeling of resonance and minor chords create tension and dissonance.
Juxtaposing dissonance with a 'happy product', such as ice cream bars, or major
chords with a serious product, such as ant killer, can create a dramatic irony that is
both memorable and entertaining.

Mnemonics / Sonic Brand Triggers

Mnemonic devices are phrases and/or sounds that provoke a reaction in the listener.
They are also called Sonic Brand Triggers [SBT] because with repetition, they are
recognized and associated with a given brand. Used consistently over the long term,
they have a remarkable impact on advertising awareness.

Sounds can evoke brands and affect the way people perceive them. Importantly,
SBTs elicit a response of some kind, making the consumer feel, think, know, be
reminded of, and feel closer to something.

Some, such as Intel, are linked to the brand by association, where others, such as
Sleep Country Canada, are explicitly linked to the brand name.

Using the TV Soundtrack

Sound has a remarkable way of staying in the mind, and of transferring imagery from
TV. Some brands have used Imagery Transfer (transferring the soundtrack of the TV
campaign and making it work on to good effect. This enquires a creative revision,
taking the essence of the TV idea and translating it to Radio. Recent examples
include Clearnet, Saturn and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. There is ample evidence
that Radio used in this way supports TV very strongly - to the point where using
Radio in effect becomes an extension of TV - at a fraction of the price.

Radio advertising format

„ Music format
„ Dialogue format
„ Announcement format
„ Celebrity announcer Format

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Guidelines for Writing Radio Copy
„ Use common, familiar language.
„ Use short words and sentences..
„ Stimulate the imagination.
„ Repeat the name of the product.
„ Stress the main selling point or points.
„ Use sound and music with care.
„ Tailor the copy to the time, place, and specific audience

Points to consider
Slogan is a short phrase in part used to help establish an image. Identity, or position
for a brand or an organization, but mostly used to increase memory.

Role of Advertising Agency

The major role ad agency is to work alongside the clients to develop and sustain the
brands that they mutually serve through consumer understanding and insight and
through creative & media delivery skills to provide best advice and the best execution
thereof to those clients for the advertising of those brands. So why hire an ad agency?

Expertise & experience professional from Ad agencies guides your marketing team to
strategies marketing communications through proper advertising support, Cost
effectiveness in media budget.

The major role as advertising agency is to work alongside the clients to develop and
sustain the brands that they mutually serve, through consumer understanding and
insight and through creative and media delivery skills to provide best advice and the
best execution thereof to those clients for the advertising of those brands.

"Buildings age and become dilapidated.

Machines wear out.
People die.
But what live on are the brands."

Brands are much more than mere products and services. Brands, if successful, are
clearly differentiated entities with which consumers can and do form a mutually
beneficial relationship over time, because of the values -rational and emotional,
physical and aesthetic - that consumer derive from them. The importance can be
summed up as follows:

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“A product is something that is made, in a factory: a brand is something that is
bought, by a customer. A competitor can copy a product; a brand is unique. A
product can be quickly out-dated; a successful brand is timeless."

The role of advertising and the advertising agency is to help effect this transformation
from product or service to brand by clearly positioning the offering to the consumer -
its role and its benefits - and by communicating the brand's own personality. In short
its role is to provide meaningful differentiation via the consumer connection.

As one wise head in advertising once said, "nothing kills a bad product faster than
good advertising". Typically advertising is playing this role, along with other parts
of what we call the marketing mix, in highly competitive market places.

Most advertisers assign this job of informing the target audience and creating images
to advertising agencies. Thus, the advertising agencies plan, prepare and place ads in
the media. But even an advertiser can do all these things. The management can do
planning of ad campaigns. For preparing ads, creative personal can be hires. And the
advertiser for placing the ads can buy media space or time. So, why hire an
advertising agency?

The reason can be enlisted as follows:

a) Expertise and experience- An advertising agency brings together people with
the required expertise and experience of the various sub-disciplines of
advertising. Thus, it has the copywriters, visualizes, researchers,
photographers, directors, planners and people who get business and deal with
clients working in ad agencies. An agency moulds all these people into a team
and gives them a highly conducive work atmosphere. The agency makes the
best use of their talents and experience to deliver rapidly, efficiently and in
greater depth than a company or organization could do on its own.
b) Objectivity and professionalism- Advertising agencies are highly
professional. Objectivity is a major virtue of ad agency. They operate in a
strange way. While they take up advertising for others, agencies hardly
advertise themselves. Ad agencies being outside intermediaries can be
objective. They thus will offer independent and detached viewpoints and
suggestions based on objective analysis.
c) Cost effective- If an organization wants to hire people to do its advertising, it
cannot provide them work all through the year. Also most experts in the fields
of advertising like directors, musicians, photographers, charge huge amounts
and are often not affordable. Moreover, hiring, organizing and managing all

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 talents required to produce advertising campaigns is not an easy thing. And the
fact that 98% of advertisers the worlds over hire as agencies is proof enough
about the cost effectiveness of the agencies. Also the kind of consistent,
powerful and compelling advertising that can be created by using the expertise,
experience, objectivity and professionalism of ad agencies cannot be measured
economically.

Functions of Advertising Agencies

Today advertising agencies are found in virtually every major city on the world and
their role in stimulating economic growth is solidly established. To understand
advertising, we need to examine the functions of an Ad Agency.

These are: -

a) Talent & Creative productions: The basic function of an Ad Agency is

providing talent. The creative efforts of the art director, the detailed analysis of
the research director and the political understanding of the campaign director,
are just a few examples of the many abilities of Ad Agency personal have to
offer. A business organization or person will contract the services of an ad
agency to help market a product.

This function involves processing the information collected from the client and
through research and designing communication material in the form of
advertisements and other publicity material. This also includes planning
creative strategies, copy or script writing, visualization, designing, layout,
shooting of films, editing, giving music, etc.

b) Research: The second function of an Ad agency is research. In order to

distribute the message to the public successfully, the agency must first know
all that it can about the product. One of the first jobs is to research the product
and the company, one must learn, one possibly can about both. The research
must even take one close to the heart of the firm’s inner operations. Ad
agencies use research as a tool to test consumer reactions to products and
services.

c) Distribution & Media planning: The third important function of an ad agency

is distribution. Here you decide what type of message you will create for the
company and what media will be most helpful in sending this message to the
public. On the basis of the media habits (access and exposure) of the target

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 audience, agency people prepare a media plan. This plan includes which media
to be used, which part of the media to be used, when to place the ads and for
how long to place the ads, etc. media planners keep track of the viewer ship,
listener ship and readership of all kinds of media.

d) Monitoring Feedback: By monitoring consumer feedback, a decision on

whether to revise the message, the medium, the target audience or all of them
can be made. Ad agencies are developing to reach the target audience. As
information is the backbone of all advertising, to prepare ads, one requires
information about the product; its competitors, the market situation and trends,
information about the audiences (their likes and dislikes and media habits) also
need to be collected. Some of the most effective advertising includes
advertisement written in their native language. All of these specialized
campaigns are creating new demands on agencies and are requiring new talents
for people who work in advertising.

In addition, many agencies also offer a variety of allied services. These include:
• Merchandising
• Public relations
• Organizing exhibitions and fairs
• Preparing all kinds of publicity material
• Planning and organizing special events (event management)
• Direct marketing

Types of Advertising Agencies

Agencies can be classified by the range of services that they offer. Also, advertising
agencies range in size from one man shows to large firms that employ thousands of
people. Accordingly, different types of advertising agencies are:
1. Full service agencies
2. Creative boutiques
3. In-house agencies
4. Specialized agencies
5. Media buying services

Full-service agencies- as the name implies, a full service agency is one that handles
all phases of advertising process for its clients: it plan, creates, produces and places
advertisements for its clients. In addition, it might provide other marketing services
such as sales promotion, trade shows, exhibits, newsletters and annual reports. In
short a full service agency will provide four major functions: account management,
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creative development and production, media planning and buying and research
services.

One major point that differentiates a full service agency from other is that the
personal work full time and the services provide are extensive. The services usually
provided by a full service agency include collecting and analyzing market data,
proposing strategy, preparing and producing the ads, placing the ads in approved
media, verifying the advertisements appearance (publication, broadcasting, etc),
invoice the client, collect the bills and pay the media and other suppliers.

Creative boutiques- it is an organization that specializes in the actual creation of

advertisements. In general, boutiques create imaginative and interesting advertising
themes and produce innovative and original advertisements. A company that uses a
creative boutique would have to employ another agency to perform the planning,
buying and administrative functions connected with advertising.

Full service ad agency studies the product or service and determines its marketable
characteristic and how it relates to the competition. At the same time the agency
studies the potential market, possible distribution plans and likely advertising media.
Following this, the agency makes a formal presentation to the client deadlines, it’s
finding about the product and its recommendation for an advertising strategy.

Creative boutiques are different from freelancers. Freelancers are individuals who
work on their own without any formal attachment with any agency. Clients or
agencies hire these from time to time. The clients also hire creative boutiques.

In-house agencies- such agencies are owned and supervised by advertisers or the
client organizations. The organizational structure and functioning of in-house
agencies are similar to full service agencies in most cases. The advertising director of
the company usually heads an in-house agency. In house agencies are organized
according to the needs and requirements 9of the company and are staffed
accordingly. Some companies solely depend on their in-house agencies for their
advertising needs. Others depend both on their in-house agency and outside agencies.
Some other companies allow their agencies to take outside jobs.

Specialized agencies- there are many agencies, which take up only specialized
advertising jobs. Certain fields like medicine, finance, outdoor advertising, social
advertising, etc. require specialized knowledge. So there are agencies, which
concentrate only on areas and employ people with the required talents. These
agencies are usually small in size.

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Media buying agencies-it is an organization that specializes in buying radio and
television time and reselling it to advertisers and advertising agencies. The services
sells time to the advertisers, orders the spots on the various stations involved and
monitors the stations to see if the ads actually run.

This trend for special media buying agencies started in the 1970s. Such agencies have
a lot of contacts in the media and offer very low commission on media rates. Media
buying agencies complement the creative boutiques. Also large companies use their
specialized negotiating talents for buying media space and time.

Structure of Advertising Agency

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MANAGING DIRECTORS

A/C DIRECTOR OR A/C MANAGEMENT GROUP

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Creative Media Production Marketing Research Administrative

Deptt. Deptt. Deptt. Deptt. Deptt. Deptt.

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 CREATIVE DEPARTMENT

ART DIRECTOR

COPY WRITER

FILM PRODUCER

MEDIA DEPARTMENT

PRESS RADIO TELEVISION OUTDOOR WINDOW DIRECT FAIR CINEMA

ADVERTISING &TRADE

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT

PRINTING BLOCK FILM

ADVERTISING MAKING PRODUCTION
MESSAGE

MARKETING DEPARTMENT

MARKET MERCHANDISING PUBLIC

RESEARCH RELATION

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 RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

FIELD STAFF STATISTICAL STAFF

ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT

OFFICE
SECTION

FINANCE
& ACCOUNT

DESPATCH
SECTION

TRAINING SECTION

Like most big organizations, advertising agencies also deal with many disciplines.
There is thus defined division of labor. Most of the big agencies employ specialists
who provide specific talents and expertise and do different functions.

Account management department- The main job of an ad agency is to get business

and maintain it. The accounts department looks after these aspects. It also works as a
liaison between the client and the agency. It tries to ensure that the agency focuses its
resources on the jobs on hand. It supervises the day-to-day development of the
account (business).

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These days the account management department is designated as the client service
department. The accounts department has account managers, accounts executives or
client service personnel. Thus, the basic requirements for these people are strong
communication skills and effective man management skills. They get the business;
they get the research done, and get the creative people working on idea generation
and execution. Then they get the media people to prepare the media plan. Also they
have to get the strategy, creative plan and media plan approved by the client.

The account department works at different levels. At the top level is the management
supervisor who reports to the management of the agency. He deals with the strategy
development, planning, and new business opportunities. He also is the agency’s
spokesperson. Next comes the account supervisor or Account Manager. He is a key
person and the primary liaison between the client and the agency and provides
working contact. Account Manager works on a single major brand or a few smaller
brands.

The next in the line is the Account Executive. He is responsible for day-to-day
activities. He sees to it that the agency team is on schedule and deliver things on time.
He ensures that all assignments are completed on time. And he keeps in touch with
the client on a day-to-day basis keeping them informed about the developments.

Next comes the Assistant Account Executive. This is an entry-level position. The
Assistant Account Executive helps the Account Executive and mostly do leg work
and rarely are involved in planning or strategy development.

Creative Department- This department has the following personnel- creative

director, copywriters, visualizers, art directors, etc. the creative director is the
agency’s creative conscience. He stimulates the creative team to come up with better
work. He approves all creative work. He assigns jobs to copywriters and visualizers
and then mould and improves their work, and also nurtures and inspires them. The
copywriter writes copy and scripts. Art directors and visualizers come up with the
visual ideas. Then there are directors and producers who translate these ideas into
radio and TV ads by writing the script and preparing the storyboard. The creative
department sometimes has an art studio to look after the print production. However,
often production work is done by outside organizations.

Media Department- the function of this department is a highly complex one. This
department has to recommend the most efficient means of delivering the message to
the target audience. It has become more complex as the computer has replaced
printed schedules and media rate cards. The media department prepares the media

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plan by trying to match the audience and the media. It then buys the media space and
time. The media department negotiates about the media rates. It also prepares the
schedules for the appearance of the ads and sees the ads appear accordingly.

Research Department- Full service agencies usually have a research department.

Research department helps in collecting and analyzing relevant information that helps
in developing strategy and the advertising message. This way the message becomes
focused and appropriate to the target audience. The research department collects
relevant and reliable information and screens all research findings.

Most of the research in the field of advertising concentrates on consumer attitudes

and behavior. They also do copy testing i.e. evaluating the effectiveness of copy
before ads are released. This kind of pre-research about consumer reactions to
creative alternatives helps in increasing the effectiveness of the ads.

Administration Department- other than the four basic functions or services, ad

agencies perform a lot of internal services like financial services, personnel
management and traffic management etc. all these are performed by the
administration department. The account department works in close coordination with
the traffic department to review deadlines and monitor progress. The administration
department has a financial division. It looks after prompt payment of bills and
salaries. It sends the invoices to clients and collects the payments. Personal
management is also an important aspect of agency and deals with recruitment,
promotions, retirements and retrenchments, etc.

PRINT MEDIA IN ADVERTISING

The print media have their own charm and effectiveness. It provides detailed
advertising information. They read quality audience in terms of income, occupation
and education. The print media use printed letters and words, typed letters,
cyclostyled circulars. They are also known as Publication Media. The degree of
readers’ interest in the advertising content depends on the vehicle. The print media
charge for advertising space, depending on the column required and the page number.
The advertiser performs the job of checking, processing, printing and distributing.
The print media have been divided into:
‹ Newspapers
‹ Magazines and
‹ Direct mail Advertising

The newspaper covers multiple types of news.

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The magazines are qualitative and serve the special interests of people.
The direct mail serves as a specific support of advertising.

Newspaper
The newspaper is a local advertising medium. It has local coverage in the sense that it
reaches almost all homes within the given area of its circulation. Newspapers are
generally published on a daily basis. There are many national newspapers, some state
level newspapers and some local newspapers. Newspapers depend on their circulation
and select news, features and editorial subjects to meet the need and requirements of
their readers. The Hindustan Times, The Times of India and The Statesman are
important national newspapers in India, while the Pioneer, Nave Bharat Times, The
Hindu are prominent regional newspapers. Advertising costs vary in different
newspapers, depending on their circulation and specialties. There are general
newspapers and special newspapers. The general newspapers cater to the needs of the
people in all walks of life, viz, businessmen, politicians, sportsmen and those
interested in movies. The Hindustan Times and The Times of India have a very large
circulation, and they cover all sorts of news. Almost every type of news is included in
these newspapers.

(i) Frequency of Delivery: the newspapers are classified into two broad
categories on the basis of frequency, viz, dailies and weeklies. The dailies are
published every day while the weeklies are published once in a week. The
frequency is decided on the basis of circulation. The weeklies publish concise
figures and news for the whole of the week, while the dailies published all
sorts of news daily received from different sources.

A daily newspaper is published as either a morning or evening edition at least

five times a week, Monday through Friday.

Morning editions tend to have broader geographic circulation and a target

readership- evening editions are read more by women.

Weekly newspapers characteristically serve small urban or suburban areas of

residential and farm communities. With their emphasis on local news and
advertising, they are becoming the fastest growing class of newspapers. A
weekly newspaper’s cost per thousand is often higher than a daily paper’s, but
a weekly has a longer life and often has more readers per copy.

(ii) Physical Size: The size may be the standard size or the tabloid size. The
standard size has 8 columns to the page, i.e. 300 lines in depth, while the

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 tabloid had 6 columns, i.e. 200 lines in depth. The standard size is that of The
Hindustan Times and The Times of India, while the tabloid is about half the
standard size-The Illustrated Weekly, Blitz, etc. Advertisers have to bear in
mind the question of size. Newspaper charge for advertising on the basis of
columns and formats.

There are two basic newspaper formats, standard size and tabloid. The standard
size newspaper is about 22 inches deep and 143 inches wide and is divided into
6 columns. The tabloid newspaper is generally about 14 inches deep and 11
inches wide. National tabloid newspapers like the National Enquirer and the
Star use sensational news stories to fight for single-copy sales. Other tabloids,
such as the New York Daily News, emphasize straight news and features.

(iii) Specialized Audience: Some dailies and weeklies serve special interest
audiences, a fact not lost on advertisers. They generally contain advertising
oriented to their special audiences, and they may have unique advertising
regulations.

(iv) Supplements: many newspapers issue supplements. The dailies issue

Saturday and Sunday supplements. Some dailies issue Sunday Magazines.
Regular supplements are issued by dailies. Sometimes, the dailies issue some
special supplements on the progress to a particular state or public enterprise or
trade or industry.

(v) Other Types of Newspapers: most Sunday newspapers also feature a

Sunday supplement magazine. Some publish their own supplement, such as
Los Angeles Magazine of the Los Angeles Times. Another type of newspaper,
the independent shopping guide or free community newspaper, offers
advertisers local saturation. Sometimes called penny savers, these shoppers
offer free distribution and extensive advertising pages targeted at essentially
the same audience as weekly newspapers-urban and suburban community
readers. Readership is often high, and the publisher uses hand delivery or direct
mail to achieve maximum saturation.

Advantages of Newspaper Advertising

Local advertising is in fact possible only in newspapers. Barring a few national

advertisements, newspapers contain mostly local advertisements. This is one of the
biggest advantages, for newspapers provide advertising in a geographically
segmented market. Local and regional newspapers offer news, editorial,

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entertainment and personal interest stories for local readers, which create an interest
in the local community and the region. The advertising message thus delivered in
local or community newspaper is most effective.

Newspapers advertisements are easy to prepare and newspapers are a relatively

inexpensive medium, when used selectively.

The system of tabloid inserts in newspapers, so popular in the USA and West
European countries, is a more efficient and dependable method of delivering the
advertising message to the target audience. Multi-page tab inserts often appear in the
daily newspaper or Sunday newspaper which is inserted by department stores,
discount and variety stores, etc. Advertisers prepare and print them and deliver them
to the newspaper establishment, which simply inserts them inside the newspapers
before they are sent for distribution. Newspapers do charge a fee for this. A tabloid
insert is different from newspaper supplements, which are delivered as part of the
Weekend edition of the newspaper. Sunday supplements are often referred to as
Sunday magazines.

Newspaper advertising has another advantage-the advantages of time flexibility. A

previously prepared advertisement may be inserted at the last minute to take
advantage of some special marketing situation.

When new advertising ideas are experimented with, newspapers are normally used
first, for such trial advertisements can be run on a small scale and on a regional basis
at a relatively low cost.

Newspapers have a wide reach. They reach almost 10 crores people, as against 20
crores reached by TV. Nearly 70 % of people reached are in urban areas. The reach
of the press is significantly higher among, males (almost 27%) as against women
(almost 15.5%). This reflects the strength of the press. The press is particularly
stronger among the larger age group of 15-24 year. Newspapers are suitable for
topical and fresh messages, as they appear daily. They are a ‘family medium’. The
testing of newspapers ads is easier. They offer a wide variety of sizes and positions.

Disadvantages of Newspaper Advertising

The important limitation of newspaper advertising is its short life span as whelms the
local nature of the advertisement. Newspapers are usually read as soon as they
received and then thrown away. Not many people read a two or three-day old
newspaper. Of course, readers do return to an article or a review that the missed; then

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when they do so, there is very little chance that they will also look over the paper’s
advertisements again. Moreover, since newspapers are printed rapidly on coarse
wood pulp paper called newsprint, and since they use the high speed rotary printing
process, the reproduction of fine details in photographs or drawings is not possible.
The quality of newspaper advertising is, therefore, poor compared to that of
magazines advertisements. This deficiency is compensated by colour supplements
given as add-ons now very often. Many a times an advertisement may go unnoticed if
places in a strategic awkward position. There are different rates for advertisement
locations in different sections of the paper. The ‘preferred position’ often carries a
higher rate. A majority of newspaper advertisements are placed on an ROP basis,
which means that the paper has the right to place the advertisements anywhere at its
discretion. ROP stands for run-of-paper. Newspapers are not a leisure and pleasure
medium. They are read in a hurry. Many may skip over the advertisements. The
clutter is another problem. They also are not demographically selective.

How Advertisers buy Newspaper Space?

To get the most from the advertising budget, the media buyer must know the
characteristics of a newspaper’s readership-the median age, sex, occupation, income,
educational level, and buying habits of the typical reader.

I. Understanding Readership and Circulation

Readership information is available from various sources such as Simmons
Market Research Bureau and Sarborough Research Corp. most large papers
provide extensive readership data. In singe-newspaper cities, reader
demographics typically reflect a cross-section of the general population. In
cities with two or more newspapers, however, these characteristics may vary
widely. The Los Angeles times is directed to a broad cross-section of the
community and La Opinion to the area’s large Hispanic population.
Advertisers must know the extent of the newspaper’s circulation. The paper’s
total circulation includes subscribers and single-copy newsstand buyers, as
well as secondary readers.
II. Rate Card
Like the magazine rate card, the newspaper rate card lists advertising rates,
mechanical and copy requirements, deadlines and other information. Because
rates vary greatly, advertisers should calculate which papers deliver the most
readers for their money, and weigh that information against that readership.
III. Local Versus National Rates
Most newspapers charge local and national advertisers different rates. The
national rate averages 75% higher, but some papers charge as much as 25%

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 more. Newspapers attribute higher rates to the added costs of serving national
advertisers. For instance, an ad agency usually places national advertising and
receives a 15% commission from the paper. If the advertising comes from
another city or state, then additional costs such as long-distance telephone calls
are involved. But many national advertisers rebel against the high rates and
take their business elsewhere. Less than 5% of national and rupees now goes to
newspapers, and that proportion may shrink even further. In response to
declining national advertising revenue, newspapers are experimenting with
simplified billing systems and discount rates for their national clients.
IV. Short Rate
An advertiser who contract to buy a specific amount of space during a one-year
period at a discount rate and then fails to do so is charged a short rate, which is
the differences between the rate contracted for and the earned rate for the
actual inches run. Conversely, an advertiser who buys more inches than
contracted for may be entitled to a rebate or credit because the earned rate for
the additional advertising space is lower.
V. Flat Rates and Discount Rates
Many national papers charge flat rates, which mean they allow no discounts; a
few newspapers offer a single flat rate to both national and local advertisers.
Newspapers that offer volume discounts have an open rate-their highest rate
for a one-time insertion-and contract rates, where by local: advertisers can
obtain discounts of up to 70% by signing a contract, for frequent or bulk space
purchases. Bulk discounts offer advertisers decreasing rates (calculated by
multiplying the number of inches by the cost per inch) as they use more inches.
Advertisers earn frequency discounts by running a given ad repeatedly in a
specific time period. Similarly, advertisers can sometimes get earned rates-a
discount applied retroactively as the volume of advertising increases through
the year. More than thousand newspapers also participate in News plan, a
newspaper advertising bureau programme that gives national and regional
advertises discounts for purchasing six or more pages per year.
VI. Combination Rates
Combination rates are often available for placing in a given ad in:
‹ Morning and evening editions of the same newspapers
‹ Two or more newspapers owned by the same publisher;
‹ In some cases, two or more newspapers affiliated in a syndicate or
newspaper group.

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ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN ADVERTISING

Television in India made its initial appearance as the poor country cousin of films
some 33 years ago. Initially, it was inaugurated in Delhi but soon spread to the other
metros and important cities. To begin with, all its programs were telecast live in
‘absence of video photography’. In the wake of Asiad 1982 we got colour TV. A
massive expansion programme was taken up, and an infrastructure of 533
transmitters was created with 22 production centers, covering 82% population as on
today, and expecting to cover 90-92% population in not too distant future. The area
coverage is going to be from the present 62% to 70% in future. The radio is quite
popular in towns, and is now going to the villages as well. In India, films are
extensively screened in every cinema hall and theatre in cities, towns and villages.
These films are also made in regional languages so that there may be effective
communication with the audience in different regions. Of late, our urban affluent
homes are the proud owners of VCPs and VCRs. The cable TV is a recent
phenomenon with the arrival of dish antennas and satellite transmission. We have
started receiving Star TV programmes, followed by ATN programmes.

Television has a large number of TV stations. TV advertising has been in fact,

replacing radio advertising. But even so, radio advertising has its own pace and is still
alive, contrary to the expectations that radio advertising will be completely replaced.
However, the fact remains that radio advertising expenditures are being curtailed in
the wake of TV advertising, which has become very popular.

Today, the medium of television is available to advertisers in two principal forms:

broadcast and cable TV. Broadcast TV reaches its audience by transmitting electro-
magnetic waves through the air across common geographic territory, cable TV
reaches its audience through wires, either strung from telephone poles or laid
underground.
(i) Broadcast TV: Broadcast TV has grown faster than any other advertising
medium in history. From its beginning after World Wall II, broadcast TV
emerged as the medium that attracts the largest volume of national advertising-
more than $20.5 billion in 1994. About half the US stations are VHF (very
high frequency, channels 2 through 13); the other half is UHF (ultra high
frequency, channels 14 through 83). However, increasing completion from
cable TV is taking viewers from the national network programmes. To
compensate, some networks are investing in cable TV systems or starting their
own. NBC, for example, started CNBC, and ABC has an 80% interest in
ESPN.

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 (ii) Cable TV: For more than 30 tears, broadcast TV, especially network TV, was
the dominant entertainment medium for most Americans. Today other
electronic media are changing that dominance. Chief among the challengers is
cable television. Cable TV has been around since the late 1940s, carrying TV
signals by wire to areas with poor reception. But in the 1970s the advent of
satellite TV, signals, the proliferation of channels, and the introduction of
uncut first-run movies via pay-cable channels such as Home Box Office and
Showtime made cable more attractive to viewers.

Special Merits of TV

TV has immense impact: no other medium can ever compete TV as far as effective
presentation is concerned. It attracts attention immediately. Computer graphics has
made it still more effective. It arouses interest in the product. In print ads, these two
steps require deliberation. Here it comes spontaneously. TV commercials and
sponsored programmes are impactive, even when the viewer is temporarily not before
the set.

a) Excellent Quality of Production: TV’s sponsored programmes and DD

programmes have been improving in terms of quality-content wise as well as
production wise- consistently over a period of time. The agency exercises
overall supervision. We have a special cadre of TV producers now. Sometimes
the movie moghuls themselves produce a TV serial (e.g. Sagar produced
Ramayana and B.R.Chopra the Mahabharat). So skilled hands handle this
medium. Some sponsored programmes are lavishly being made. They do a lot
of outdoor shooting. But most of the programmes are indoor shot programmes.

b) Familiar, Friendly Voice: here the models are all familiar and their presence
is reassuring. The audience likes the face and welcomes it. Welcome it. We
thus see Karan Lunel, Maya Alagh, Malavika, Suchitra Krishnamurthy, Kittoo,
Juhi Chawla, etc. after all, it is an entertainment medium. The model attracts
attention in his or her own right. It adds to our pleasure. This is a distinct
advantage of TV.

c) Retailers also watch TV: Both consumers and distributors are TV viewers.
The retailers might miss out the ads in print media. But they are exposed to TV
ads. Thus they feel inclined to stock these products. Nand Kishore Khanna &
Sons, a local firm making Homacol liquid soap has definitely improved its
distribution after TV advertising. The single medium does a double job.

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 d) It is a Comprehensive Technique: In TV, there is a unique blend of sight,
colour, movement, sound, timing, repetition and presentation in the home. But
together it has more attribution than any other medium. It, therefore, produces
quick results. Only the product should be a nationally marketed consumer
product.

Pros & Cons of Broadcast TV Advertising

The Pros

¾ Mass Coverage: a full 98% of all US homes have a TV (most have more
than one), and viewing time for the average household increased from about
five hours a day in 1960 to almost seven hours a day in 1994.
¾ Low Cost: despite the often judge initial outlays for commercial
production and advertising time, TV’s equally huge audiences bring the cost
per exposure down to $2 to $10 per thousand viewers.
¾ Sole Selectivity: Television audiences vary a great deal depending on the
time of day, of the week, and nature of the programming. Advertising
messages can be presented when potential customers are watching and
advertisers can reach select geographic audiences by buying local and regional
markets.
¾ Impact: Television offers an immediacy that other forms of advertising
cannot achieve, displaying and demonstrating the product with sound and full
colour right before the customer’s eyes.
¾ Creativity: The various facets of the TV commercial-sight, sound,
motion and colour-permit infinite original and imaginative appeals.
¾ Prestige: Since the public considers TV the most authoritative and
influential medium, it offers advertisers a prestigious image. Hallmark, Xerox,
Mobile and IBM increased their prestige by regularly sponsoring cultural TV
Programmes.
¾ Social Dominance: in North America, most people under age 35 grew up
with TV as a window to their social environment. They continue to be stirred
by TV screenings of the Olympics, space travel, assassinations, wars and
political scandal.

The Cons

Sometimes, broadcast TV, just doesn’t ‘fit’ the creative mix because of cost, lack of
audience selectivity, inherent brevity, or the clutter of competitive message.

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 ¾ High Production Cost: One of broadcast TV’s greatest handicaps is the
high cost of producing quality commercials. Depending on the creative
approach, the cost of filming a national commercial today may run from
$20,000 to more than $1 million.
¾ High Air Time Cost: The average cost of a prime-time network
commercial is about $125,000. A single 30-second commercial for a top-rated
show in price time may cost as much as $400,000. Special attractions like the
Super Bowl cost more than $1 million. The cost of large coverage, even at low
rates, prices small and medium-size advertisers out of the market.
¾ Limited Selectivity: Broadcast TV is not cost-effective for advertisers
seeking a very specific, small audience. And it is losing some of its selectivity
because of changing audience a trends. More women are working outside the
more are watching cable TV hurting advertisers on network soap opera.
¾ Brevity: Studies show that most TV viewers can’t remember the product
or company in the most recent TV ad they watched even if it was within the
last five minutes. Recall improves with the length of the commercial; people
remember 60 second spots better than 30 second spots.
¾ Clutter: TV advertising is usually surrounded by station breaks, credits,
and public service announcements, as well as size or even other spots. These
entire messages compete for attention, so viewers become annoyed and
confused and often mis-identify the product.
¾ Zipping & Zapping: VCR users who skill through commercials when
replaying tapes programmes are zipping; remote control users change channels
at the beginning of a commercial break are zapping.

Pros & Cons of Cable TV Advertising

The Pros

The primary advantages of cable TV are its selectivity, low cost and great flexibility.
¾ Selectivity: Cable offers specialized programming aimed at particular
types of viewers. Narrow casting allows advertisers to choose
programming with the viewer demographics that best match their target
customers.
¾ Audience Demographics: Cable subscribers are younger better
educated, more affluent, have higher-level jobs, live in larger
households, and are more likely to try new products and buy more high-
ticked items such as cars, appliances and high-tech equipment.
¾ Low Cost: many small companies get TV’s immediacy and impact
without the enormous expenditure of broadcast. TV Cable advertising

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 may cost as little as radio. Many national advertisers find sponsorship
attractive, since an entire cable series can cost less to produce than a
single broadcast TV commercial.
¾ Flexibility: Broadcast TV commercials need to be short because of the
high costs of production and air time, but cable ads can run up to 2
minutes and in the case of infomercials, much longer. They can also be
tailored to fit the programming environment.
¾ Testability: Cable is a good place to experiment, testing both new
products and various advertising approaches-ad frequency, copy impact,
and different media mixes.

The Cons

¾ Limited Reach: About 40% of households don’t have cable. This

is cable’s main weakness.
¾ Fragmentation: With more than 50 channels at their disposal,
cable viewers don’t watch anyone show in enormous numbers. To
reach the majority of the cable audience in a particular market, ads
must run on many stations.
¾ Quality: Cable particularly local cable sometimes has poorer
production quality and less desirable programming than broadcast
TV.
¾ Zipping & Zapping: Cable TV is subject to some of the same
drawbacks as broadcast TV, including zipping and zapping.

Types of Television Advertising

Advertisers use different strategies to buy time on broadcast and cable TV. The major
broadcast networks offer a variety of programmes that appeal to different audiences.
So the advertiser buys ads based on the viewing audiences of each programme. There
are various ways advertisers can buy time on TV. They include sponsoring an entire
programme, participating in a programme, purchasing spot announcements between
programmes, and purchasing spots from syndicators.

Network Advertising
Historically, major US advertiser purchased air time from one of the national
broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox. Cable has slowly eroded the audience
of the broadcast networks. At one time the big three (ABC, CBS, and NBC) had over
90% of the audience; today their share is about 61%, while the cable networks hold
about 22%.

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Networks offer large advertisers convenience and efficiency because their messages
can be broadcast simultaneously via many affiliate stations throughout the country.
The broadcast networks tend to reach masses of American consumers-a cross section
of the population-while the cable networks tend to reach more selective niches.

An advertiser who underwrites the total cost of a programme is engaging on

sponsorship. In a sole sponsorship, the advertisers are responsible for the programme
content and the cost of production. Sponsorship is so costly that single sponsorship is
usually limited to specials. Companies too at sponsor programmes (AT & T, Xerox,
and Hallmark, for example) gain important advantages. First, the public more readily
identifies with the products due to the prestige of sponsoring first-rate entertainment.
Second, the sponsor controls the placement and content of its commercials. The
commercials can be fit to the programme and run any length the sponsor desire so
long as they remain within network or station regulations. Further, because networks
are centralized the advertisers get only one bill.

Network advertising also has several disadvantages: lack of flexibility, long lead
times, inconveniency restrictions and forced adherence to network standards and
practices.

Soft Announcements
National spot announcements run in clusters between programmes. They are less
expensive than participation and more flexible than network advertising because they
can be concentrated in specific regions of the country. A small budget or limited
distribution advertiser may use spots to introduce a new product into one area at a
time. Or an advertiser can vary its message by market to suit promotional needs. This
new technology enables agency buyers to electronically process orders, make goods,
and revisions and maintain an electronic audit trail through the line of a schedule.

Syndication
Syndicated programmes are an increasingly popular alternative to network
advertising. Television syndication comes in three forms; off network, first-run, and
barter. In off network syndication, former popular network programmes (reruns) are
sold to individual stations for re-broadcast. First-run syndication involves original
shows produced specifically for the syndication market. One of the faster-growing
trends in television is barter syndication (also called advertiser-supported
syndication): first run programmes offered free or for a reduce rate but with some of
the ad space (usually 50%) pre-sold to national advertisers. In syndication, the
producers deal directly with the stations rather than going through the networks. This

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‘direct from the factory’ approach is efficient and gives local TV stations more
programming control and greater profits. It also gives advertisers access to inventory
(commercial time) for their spots that they might get on network programmes often at
better prices.

Local TV Advertising
Local businesses and retailers, often in cooperation with nationally known
manufacturers, now spend over $8 billion annually on local broadcast and cable TV.
Most local stations sell spot announcements, but some local advertisers develop and
sponsor local programmes or buy the rights to a syndicated series.

Radio Advertising in Electronic Media

Radio is a personal, one-on-one medium. It can entertain people who are driving,
walking, at home, or away from home. Radio is also adaptable to moods. In the
morning, people may want to hear the news, upbeat music, or interesting chatter; in
the afternoon they may want to inwind with classical or easy-listening music. Most
people listen faithfully to two or three different radio stations with different types of
programming.
In India, Akashwani has 94 radio stations, and covers 95% population of our country.

Types of Radio Advertising

An advertiser may purchase network, spot or local radio time. Local purchases
account for 78% of all radio time sold; national spot radio, another 18% and networks
5%.

Networks
Advertisers may use one of the national radio networks to carry their message to the
entire national market simultaneously via stations that subscribe to the network’s
programmes. In addition, more than 100 regional radio networks in the US operate
with information oriented toward specific geographic markets. Networks provide
national and regional advertisers with simple administration and low effective net
cost per station. Disadvantages include lack of flexibility in choosing affiliated
station, the limited number of station on a network’s roster, and the long lead times
required to book time.

Spot radio
Spot radio affords national advertisers great flexibility in their choice of markets,
stations, air time, and copy. They input commercials on the air quickly-some stations

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required as little as 20 minutes lead time. And advertisers can build local acceptance
by using local personalities.

Local Radio
Local time denotes ratio spots purchased by a local advertiser or agency. It involves
the same procedure as national spot. Radio advertising is either live or taped. Most
radio stations use recorded shows with live news in between. Likewise, nearly all
radio commercials are pre-recorded to reduce costs and maintain broadcast quality.

Pros & Cons of Radio Advertising

The Pros

The principle advantage of radio is high reach and frequency, selectivity and cost-
efficiency.

¾ Reach & Frequency: Radio offers an excellent combination of reach and

frequency. The average adult listens more than three hours a day, radio builds a
large audience quickly, and a normal advertising schedule easily allows
repeated impact on the listener.
¾ Selectivity: Specialized radio formats, with prescribed audiences and coverage
areas, enable advertisers to select the market they want to reach-a specific sex,
age group, ethnic or religious background, income group, employment
category, educational level, or special interest.
¾ Cost Efficiency: radio offers its reach, frequency and selectivity at one of the
lowest costs per thousand and radio production is inexpensive. National spots
can be produced for about one-tenth the cost of a TV commercial. And local
stations often produce local spots for free.
¾ Other Advantage: Radio also offers timeliness, immediacy, local relevance,
and creative flexibility.
The Cons

¾ Limitations of Sound: Radio is heard but not seen, a drawback if the product
must be seen to be understood. Some agencies think radio restricts their
creative options.
¾ Segmented Audiences: If a large number of radio stations compete for the
same audience, advertisers who want to blanket the market have to buy
multiple stations, which may not be cost effective.

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 ¾ Short-lived & Half-Heard Commercials: Radio commercials are fleeting.
They can’t be kept like a newspaper or a magazine ad. Radio must compete
with other activities for attention, and it does not always succeed.
¾ Clutter: Stations with the greatest appeal for advertisers have more
commercials. Advertisers must produce a commercial that stands out from the
rest.

7-Steps in preparing Radio Schedule

The procedure advertisers use to prepare radio schedules is similar to that used for
TV schedules:

1. Identify stations with the greatest concentration of the advertiser’s target audience
by demographics (say men and women aged 35 to 49).
2. Identify stations whose format typical offers the highest concentrations of potential
buyers.
3. Determine which time periods (day parts) on those stations offer the most (average
quarter-hour) potential buyers.
4. using the stations’ rate cards for guidance, construct a schedule with a strong mix
of the best time periods. At this point, it is often wise to give the advertiser’s media
objectives to the station, and ask what they can provide for that budget. This gives the
media buyer a starting point for analyzing costs and negotiating the buy.
5. The proposed buy in terms of reach & frequency.
6. Determine the cost for each 1,000 target people each station delivers. The key
word is target; the media buyer is not interested in the station’s total audience.
7. Negotiate & place the buy.

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