CHAPTER 5 : ADVERTISING
Advertising is one of the oldest, most visible and most important instruments of the marketing communications
mix. The most crucial stem in the advertising process is translating the message strategy into a creative platform
and in advertising execution tactics.
Chapter objectives
- Understand the importance of creativity in advertising and developing a creative platform
- Evaluate execution strategies for rational appeals
- Understand the effectiveness of emotional execution strategies such as humour, eroticism, fear and warmth
- Get an overview of new advertising formats
- Develop insights into cross-cultural advertising
- Understand the effects of advertising irritation and confusion
Types of advertising
Advertising = any paid, non-personal communications through various media by an identified company, non-profit
organisation or individual. It is a good marketing communications tool to inform and persuade people, irrespective
of whether a product, a service or an idea is promoted.
Sender Message
- Manufacturer - Informational
Initiated by a manufacturing company that promotes its own - Transformational
brands. - Institutional
Government campaigns.
- Collective
A government takes the initiative. - Selective vs generic
Selective : promote a specific brand
- Retailer Generic : promotes a whole product category
- Co-operative - Theme vs action
Retailer and a manufacturer or two manufacturing companies. Theme : attempts to build a reservoir of goodwill for a brand
or a product.
- Idea Action : tries to stimulate consumers to buy a product
This is mostly by not-for-profit organisations. immediately
Receiver Media
- Consumer - Audio-visual (above the line)
- Business-to-business - Print (above the line)
Industrial : to use in own production process - Point-of-purchase (below the line)
Trade : use the products to resell them - Direct (below the line)
1
, Outdoor advertising to communicate and idea for a
generic ‘product category’
Share of media types in global ad
spendings, 2017 – 2021
This is an overview of global ad spending from 2017 until today and a projection of 2021. You see that in five year
time there is a growing importance of online advertising, which is at cost of the other advertising. But remember
that offline advertising still accounts for roughly the half of all ad spendings.
Creative platform
- Summarize main message into creative idea
- It should take several considerations into account : the problem the campaign wants to resolve, campaign
objectives, the key customer benefit, evidence for this benefit, the characteristics of the target group, and a
conversational style and advertising...
- Creative idea should be sustainable across tools and over time
E.g. like the Eastpak idea : you can use it for quite some time, and it can be translated in different stimuli for
the different media.
- Translate creative idea into creative executions
2
,Creativity in advertising
‘Violation of expectations’ (It is original, it violates what people would expect, what is normally done.)
Creativity in advertising has at least two dimensions => functionally creative :
- Different, highly unique and novel
- Relevant and meaningful to the target group, be in line with the campaign objectives, and be a translation of
the campaign message strategy. -> functional
Ads can be different in many ways :
- Original : contain elements that are surprising or different from the obvious
- Flexible : combine different ideas or switch from one perspective to the other.
- Elaborate : they contain unexpected details or become more complicated or sophisticated, or combine
previously unrelated ideas.
- Formally : they contain artistic verbalization or beautiful shapes.
The impact of creative advertising is generally assumed to be in its attention-grabbing potential. If a target groups
notices it, it can lead to more and deeper processing of the ad’s content, and higher recognition and recall of the
brand and message elements. Creative ads also increase the willingness of viewers to view the ad again.
An ad has to be artistically creative, but also strategically creative : the latter refers that the ad should be relevant
to the target group. People should really understand the ad after they stopped.
Advertising appeals, advertising formats and endorsers
Rational appeals Emotional appeals
- Talking head - Humour
- Demonstration - Fear
- Problem solution - Warmth
- Testimonial - Eroticism
- Slice of life - Music
- Dramatization - ...
- Comparative ads
- ...
Endorsers
- Expert endorsement
- Celebrity endorsement
There are different type of stimuli, which can be used at the same time! You have the difference between rational
appeals, emotional appeals and endorsers.
Endorsers = models that people can relate to. Can be a peer, but can also be an expert or a celebrity.
3
, Emotional advertising appeals are advertisements whose main purpose is to elicit affective responses and to
convey an image.
Rational advertising appeals contain features, practical details and verifiable, factually relevant cues that can serve
as evaluative criteria.
~ difference between action and image communications.
- Emotional appeals -> image communications / imagery communications
- Rational appeals -> action communications / product performance communications
Rational appeals
Rational ads may contain one or several information cues.
- Price - Special offers - Independent research
- Quality - Taste - Company research
- Performance - Nutrition - New ideas
- Components - Packaging - Safety
- Availability - Warranties
They are advertising messages that use functional, rational... elements that persuade the consumer. They are
tangible hard-branding elements that you can use.
The information cues that are mostly used are : performance, availability, components, price, quality and special
offers.
Also interesting is that ads for durable goods contain significantly more information cues than ads for non-durable
goods. Ads in more developed countries are more informative than ads in less developed countries. Rational
appeals are more effective than emotional appeals when a product is new to the market. Ads for intangible
products contain more information cues than for tangible products. The level of information varies between
different advertising media.
Talking head
= an ad in which the characters tell ta story in their own words. = A testimonial. A peer is an ad says this was my
problem, I used this problem and now it is solved. You should try it to.
4
