ADVERTISING AND MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Modern Advertising Methods

Advertising and marketing have become an essential part of the business world. If you

have a good product or an efficient service to offer, you need to master the art of selling

it! While some of the advertising agencies might stick

to the conventional advertising methods, most of the

leading players are resorting to the fresh and modern

advertising methods. There is a new cult of modern

advertisers who are experimenting with ideas that are

truly modern and innovative! Newspaper

advertisements and colored fliers are so passé! Say

hello to the era of instant, quick, smart and out-of-the

box ideas! Well, if you still associate advertising with

the newspaper ads, televisions ads or radio ads for

that matter, then you definitely need a refresher

course.

There are different types of advertising and advertising techniques that are available for

promoting products and services. However, here are some of the latest and hottest

trends in advertising that are gaining popularity. People are now looking for new types of

advertising appeals. Many of the new-age advertising methods are a result of the advent

of the Internet, while some of the trends are just novel ideas that have transformed

mundane advertising media into brilliant and witty advertising methods! Internet

advertising is a vast concept and it entails several sub-types, many of which are only

recently introduced. Email advertising is one of the earlier trends, while the new ones

include banner advertising, pixel advertising, blog advertising, keyword advertising and

contextual advertising.

Web Banner Advertising

If billboard advertising is used on roads, then a similar type called

banner advertising is used on the web! Have you noticed the horizontal

advertisement strips that are seen at the top of the web page? Web

banners are usually constructed using images, or JavaScript, or any

other multimedia objects and animations. Web banners are usually link

to web pages that are related to the content on the existing website.

Bandwagon Advertising

Well, this is nothing but a propaganda advertising technique, which

aims at convincing the user that everyone else is using the

products or everyone in the customer base, is in favor of the

brand.

This compels the consumer to at least think about buying that

product and check what everyone else is raving about. Bandwagon advertising is a

strategy that is based on consumer psychology and hence, is an effective advertising

technique which can be used via any media be it print, electronic or broadcast.

Promotional Advertising

Promotional advertising involves the use of promotional give-away items or promotional

media events, which help to garner public attention and are an effective way of

advertising. Handing out promotional freebies is a modern advertising technique that is

innovative and very effective as well.

Testimonials and Endorsements

Ever wondered why Colgate brought Brooke Shields on board to promote their

toothpaste? Or did you know that Keanu Reeves had once been a part of an

advertisement for Cornflakes?

Well, an endorsement from a celebrity or a public figure is reason enough for certain

customers to try a particular product. Such testimonials or endorsements are a great way

to advertise particular products and services. Another evolved version of this being a new

type called covert advertising, which involves the use of brand names or actual products

in movies or television shows which leads to an indirect form of advertising.

Surrogate Advertising

Several national laws have banned the advertising of products

like alcohol or cigarettes. Owing to this, many umbrella brands

have come up with an advertising technique which only

promotes the umbrella brand name which of course, also

reminds the consumer of the products that have been banned

from advertising. For example, Kingfisher doesn’t need to

advertise its beer when the general brand names, also conferred to the aircrafts, are

being advertised publicly.

Pixel Advertising

Pixel advertising is a new type of Internet advertising in which the cost of an

advertisement is calculated based on the number of pixels it occupies. This form of

advertising originated in late 2005, when a British student Alex Tew came up with a

website called The Million Dollar Homepage, where the advertisers could buy advertising

space at the rate of $1 USD per pixel with a space limit of one million pixels. In addition

to the space options provided by the hosting websites, there is also the option of using

Do-it-Yourself (DIY) pixel scripts, which ensures that people who do not understand the

intricacies of the pixel ads can incorporate the pixel ads in their website without any

hassles. Some of the commonly used DIY pixel scripts are Million Pixel Script and the

GPix Pixel Ad Script.

Contextual Advertising

Do you notice how Google generates ads that are relevant to your search?

Or more recently, have you noticed the Google ads that show up next to

your emails in the Google mail service? Well, if you are one of those

people who still haven’t noticed this, then you need to wake up and smell

the coffee. Well, Google Adsense was the first contextual advertising

venture. Contextual advertising is a very specifically targeted form of

Internet marketing in which the advertisements are selected by automated

systems based on the content being viewed by a particular user. The automated system

scans the text of a website for keywords and sends advertisements that match the

content which the user is viewing. Many search engines also make use of contextual

advertising for displaying ads on the search result pages, such that the ads match the

things that the user is looking up on the web. After Google started this trend, there were

many others like Yahoo and Microsoft who followed suit.

Keyword Advertising

Commonly, keyword advertising is also known as pay per click advertising or cost per

action advertising. Although, Yahoo was the first company to venture into keyword

advertising, it is Google Adwords program which is now most popular for its keyword

advertising. Some of the popular search engines, which are into keyword advertising,

include Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, Miva and LookSmart.

Blog Advertising

If you thought that a blog was nothing, but an online journal, then you are wrong. Owing

to the tremendous popularity of blogs, advertisers have wisely used the blogs as effective

advertising and marketing tools. The corporate blogs are excellent ways for companies to

reach out to their customer base on the Internet. The advertising blogs often make use of

Search Engine Marketing techniques, which ensure better results on the web.

Bathroom Advertising

Truly out-of-the-box isn’t it? Yes, bathroom advertising is

nothing, but placement of advertisements in public restrooms! A

research was carried out, in which a test group of people visiting

a restroom were questioned whether they noticed the

advertisements in there, and surprisingly a major percentage of

the group were seen to have a high retention of the

advertisements. This led to the conclusion that people visiting the restroom are a good

target audience. Bathroom advertising is soon catching up as an effective advertising

tool.

Mobile Advertising

Yes, as annoying as it might be for you to receive advertisements on

your cell phone, it is now a fact that mobile advertising or cell phone

advertising is one of the most effective ways of advertising. Most of

the times, advertisers have a data of mobile numbers of their existing

customer base as well as a list of phone numbers of people who might

be potential customers. A message on the mobile phone rarely goes

unnoticed and hence, qualifies as an effective marketing or advertising tool!

Public Relations Advertising

Maintaining and developing good public relations has been a marketing tool for companies

to maintain goodwill amongst employees as well as clients. It is not only a way to be in

the public eye, but also a great way to build and maintain a particular brand image and

identity.

Public relations are thus a great advertising tool which is used by companies to reach out

to their investors, employees and of course, their existing and potential customer base.