Brief history of television advertising

It all started with Radio

Broadcasting was originally developed as a means for companies to sell radio. But once commercial entities realized that many families were listening to the radio a considerable amount of time each day, have begun to explore this medium as a way to get their message to the masses. If one must choose a single event which began the era of broadcasting, it would probably be transmitted by the radio station WEAF in New York City August 28, 1922 This was a ten-minute advertisement for housing suburban apartment. By Christmas of that year, some department stores in New York joined the fray and ran advertisements for their stores.

In the late '20s radio advertising had advanced dramatically. It is now dominated by advertising agencies who have taken control of the time buying and selling air time available to its customers. They also handled the creative aspects of the commercials and programs, and indeed also created the entire series, which were designed to sell a product or another. These efforts have paved the way for the genesis of television advertising, which will begin in a few decades.

This was one of the Sponsor

Full-time television programs did not really take hold until 1948 as it took so long for the U.S. to recover from the Depression and World War II. At that time, the number of television sets reached the critical mass to be considered a medium that can reach the masses. As television was a completely new phenomenon - namely that offers both sound and moving image, the advertising industry moved into this arena with caution because they were not sure what methods work best to promote customers of their products on television. In other words, should still be treated as radio advertising, but with pictures or would be generated in a completely new approach must be taken to reach the television audience in a meaningful and effective?

After the investigation and study of many advertising agencies determined that the most effective way to reach consumers with a strong message would be the creation of shows that have featured a single product or line of products from a single company. From this concept arised TV shows typical of 1950, including titles such as Kraft Television Theater, Colgate Comedy Hour, and now Coke. As in the case of radio, television programs these were produced by advertising agencies for their clients rather than studies, as is common practice at the time.

This practice has worked very well for customers for a while '. But as television gained more popularity and there were more people watching, the networks have pushed the costs of doing business (ie more eyeballs = more U.S. dollars in total for achieving all) and this upward pressure on cost of providing an output on the TV (plus the ever increasing costs for the creation of new content) forced a major change in the relationship of all parties: advertising agencies, clients / sponsors and television networks. A solution must be found if this powerful advertising medium has been to continue to be affordable for sponsors.

Magazine advertising revenue in the era of Concept

NBC executive Sylvester L. "Pat" Weaver came up with a solution that would work and would also be very beneficial to the networks. He introduced the "magazine concept" of television advertising. In this arrangement, the sponsors would buy blocks of time (usually one or two minutes) on a show rather than being a sponsor for an entire show. This idea would allow a number of sponsors - up to four the number has been imagined - for a show. As a magazine, the networks that now controls the content as no advertiser would "own" a particular show.

Like all new ideas, this was originally opposed by Masison Avenue, but after a while 'testing, they found that this method would work very well for a number of packaged-goods companies manufacturing a cornucopia of brand names, like Procter and Gamble with such disparate products as Tide (laundry detergent), Crest (toothpaste) and Jif (peanut butter).

In 1960, the magazine concept dominated television advertising, as it has since. Instead of relying on audience identification with a specific show, sponsors hours spread their messages through planning, trying to reach as many consumers as possible. The ability to spread their advertising dollars to reach a broader segment of the population has proved very effective for sponsors. Where once they were locked in a block of a specific time each day or each week on a particular network, you may now choose the time and the networks where they wanted their message to be seen.

This evolution of the advertising magazine concept is really the birth of modern television advertising. The only exception is that the infomercial is actually a return to the show sponsored model used in the early days of television advertising ....