History of the past 100 years of advertising.

Whether your small business is based solely on the web, or if you have a brick and mortar store where you sell your goods and services it is extremely important to understand how technology has influenced successful marketing campaigns over the years. 

Ready for your history lesson?

Let’s start with radio. The first radio advertisements were simply announcements that benefited the owners of the stations. No money ever traded hands, however it didn’t take long until savvy business owners took advantage of this new medium. In 1922 Remik’s Music Store (based out of Seattle, WA) sponsored a program on KFC, a radio station that was partly owned by a Seattle based newspaper. Remik’s sponsored the radio show by promoting the program with large ads in the newspaper and invited people to buy songs that were just performed. Radio ads proved to be very effective compared to advertising in print alone, and even more so when owners combined both print and radio advertising. Soon, local DJs started to build reputations with their audience. Their listeners purchased the products or services that were mentioned by the on-air celebrity. Later, professionally produced spots included sound effects, background music, dialogue with numerous personalities, and jingles became an effective way of advertising to listeners. Studies showed that the quality of the commercials was just as important as the number of ads that they heard.

Television gives radio a run for it’s money. The first television advertisement was for a 20 second Bulova spot before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. It displayed an image of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States accompanied with a simple voice over that said “America runs on Bulova time.” (For anyone keeping score, the Phillies beat the Dodgers that day by a score of six to four). It wasn’t until 1990 until advertising on television became affordable to small businesses. Personal computers had advanced to the point where local broadcasters could use them for video production on local cable TV stations. Unlike radio, advertisers could represent their brand visually as well as with sound. Some ads, such as the Winston cigarettes commercials became so popular they ran for 20 years.

Television is still the dominant advertising medium today, Even though 50% of all TV homes will use a DVR by 2016, most viewers are still watching commercials. In fact, DVRs actually increased the rating for commercials by 44%. 

Internet now competes with radio, and television. Prodigy, a company owned by IBM and Sears, ran the first advertisement on the internet and promoted Sears products  in the early 1980s. Prodigy even ran advertisements for AOL, which one of Prodigy’s direct competitors. Global Network Navigator was the first commercial web publication offering clickable advertisements which we all know as banner ads. Internet advertising has grown to include many forms of advertising such as:

• Search engine result pages: Probably the most popular form as everyone is familiar with Google’s textually relevant ads

• Rich Media Ads: These are ads that have video and/or audio. They are typically using Adobe’s Flash technology, but ads written in HTML 5 are starting to appear as well.

• Social network advertising: If you use Twitter, then you’ve probably seen companies talking about sales, coupons, or just bringing their followers up to speed. The same is done on Facebook as well.

Internet advertising is getting more and more popular. Internet advertising revenues hit  record spending amounts in 2011. This is partly because affluent persons are actually using the internet more than television. Internet based advertising is only going to increase, especially when companies like Hulu are able to provide valuable free content.

What else is out there? There are literally thousands of different advertising ideas that you can use for your small business. You will need to base your decisions on your demographic, and what you are able to offer to your customer. Sometimes a special niche form of advertising might provide you with the results you are after. For example, a travel site might want to advertise on the mini-TVs in metropolitan taxis because that is the demographic they are trying to attract, or an smartphone case maker may want to advertise on a smartphone app because they can target customers that only have smartphones.

America has a love and hate relationship with advertising. It’s up to you to ensure that you stay loved.

For more information on how Tonangi Design & Media can create a website or produce a video for business visit www.tonangi.com

 Vinod Tonangi | www.tonangi.com | phone: 201.252.7265 | fax: 619.566.4043

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When TV Ads go Bad.

Once a small business realizes that television advertising can dramatically improve their sales, they usually begin by calling up their local station and inquiring about production and ad time packages. As I've mentioned in earlier blog posts, local stations have a tendency to ask for a long term commitment and will usually produce the commercial for you - either for very cheap, or even for free. Unfortunately, these types of ads usually look something like these:

Both of these commercials tried to invoke an emotion. The pizza ad tried to be humorous, while the sleep ad tried to instill fear. Both of these commercials failed at their attempts because of the execution. Although being bizarre and humorous can often help people remember advertisements -  people should recall the commercial positively. If people associate your brand with incompetence then you will find it hard to attract customers to your business. Local television ads do not have to look like they were made by a 3rd grader (no offense to the 3rd graders that are reading this blog). Low budget TV ads can be produced professionally. At Tonangi Media one of most popular video production packages is our Bronze media package, simply because of the cost. For only $1,000 a small business can have a professional TV commercial that will be targeted to the appropriate demographic. Any good advertising agency will review your competitor's marketing strategy. By understanding your competitors, your target customer, and your product, a highly customized television ad with a professional voice over can be produced for a relatively low cost.

Or, you could take your chances with an unreliable advertising agency and hope your ad doesn't turn out like these:

A television commercial is not only used to get your name out to the public - it is also used to have people associate your commercial with your brand. When people associate a poorly produced commercial with a brand they typically stay away from the company. Just having your brand name out there for the public to see is not enough. A message with an emotion must be conveyed to your audience. It is not enough for the commercial to be compelling to watch, it also has to convince people to purchase from you rather then your competitors. Even if your commercial states that you are cheaper, more convenient, or trustworthy no one will believe you if your commercial does not reveal some sense of professionalism. When it comes to television advertising just remember you definitely get what you pay for. Don't fall for the free production that many local stations will try to persuade you with. They know their productions are not good enough for your needs, which is why they offer them for free. Of course, you will usually have to commit to a year of advertising - something that is not necessary with advertising agencies, like Tonangi Media.

 For more information on how Tonangi Media can help you advertise on television visit www.tonangi.com

Vinod Tonangi | www.tonangi.com | phone: 201.252.7265 | fax: 619.566.4043

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Emotion in advertising

When customers immerse themselves with a product (or service) advertising seems much more pleasurable, then an annoyance. Companies that try to instill some type of emotion generally find that it is more successful because it sticks with consumers on an emotional level.

Here are a few examples:

If you ask most iPhone users about their phone many of them will say that having an iPhone doesn't just mean that you are using a portable multi-function device. The would say that it's a lifestyle. iPhones users have an emotional attachment to their phone. So much so that there are blogs and podcasts [iTunes Link] dedicated to this single mobile device. Usually it is a brand (as opposed to a single product) that gets this type of attention. You can see this with luxury companies like Mercedes or Louis Vutton, but this is not limited to just expensive brands. Verizon Wireless has a huge following of customers that are willing to sacrifice the type of devices that they can use on the Verizon network to get the best service in the country. Verizon took wireless service, which is typically considered a commodity, and created a highly successful campaign around a simple phrase, "Can you hear me now?" This was based purely on one emotion: comedy, yet it reinforced Verizon's reliability. It was so successful that numerous amount of parodies started showing up on the net, which reinforced the original ad and continued to increase Verizon's exposure.

Most small businesses do not consider what they offer as an 'emotional' product. You may happen to own a pizza place or a used car dealership, but don't feel left out in the cold. A good ad agency will be able to take your product or service and create an ad that evokes emotion in people. Depending on your target demographic and your product you may want a feeling of 'coolness', empathy, comedy, excitement, or even fear to help attach an emotion to your product. Simply stating the facts is not memorable enough for the majority of consumers.

Unfortunately, when small businesses make their first attempt to advertise on television they usually talk to local cable companies who pressure them into entering a long term agreement. This requires a large minimum fee, and in return these cable companies produce the ad either very cheap, or for free. These ads always come off as 'cheesy', or irrelevant and can actually damage your brand. Potential customers can easily be 'turned off'. How many times have you seen a local television commercial and thought "How is this even on TV ?" This is not the impression you want to give to your potential customers.  After such a poor experience, and very little return on their advertising investment, small businesses begin to reject the idea that television advertising can work for them. 

This is why it is important to realize that the content of your advertisement is just as (if not more) important then the publisher that is distributing your advertisement. An ad can not simply state the obvious with text and logos fading in and out on the screen. A good ad agency can develop a concept that is right for your target demographic, and can also make sure that you don't waste your advertising dollars on ads and air time that won't generate positive results.

For more information on how Tonangi Media can help you advertise on television visit www.tonangi.com

 Vinod Tonangi | www.tonangi.com | phone: 201.252.7265 | fax: 619.566.4043

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Local television advertising is now even more effective then before

Now, more then ever before, local television has become the most cost-effective form of advertising. Some people are falsely led to believe that television viewership is decreasing, however they could not be more wrong. In fact, a recent Nielsen report showed that television viewership has actually increased since last year. Let's look at the facts. More then 99% of American households own a television, and 86% of all American households watch cable television.

Should you be worried about DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) like TiVOs? No. Only about 17% Americans have DVRs. Nielsen's study is the first to look at how many DVR users actually watch ads. The data suggests that about 50% of DVR owners skip ads. This means out of 264,472,157 people that watch local cable television ads, about 22,480,133 skip them. That's only a marginal 8.5% that would skip through your ad. What is even more interesting is that Americans are now watching television almost 5 hours a day, and many Americans are watching television on bigger sets in high definition.

The poor economy has given advertisers with cash flow an advantage over their competitors. Television advertising revenue has already dropped by 13%, and both local and national television stations are scrambling to acquire new advertisers just as many small businesses are trying to find new customers. Television stations are offering more spots for a much lower cost then ever before. Ad agencies, such as Tonangi Media, have already negotiated better rates with most partners. These cost savings make it more attractive to advertise on television exactly at a time when television viewership is growing. 

If you are interested in advertising your business on television please visit www.tonangi.com for more information.

 Vinod Tonangi | www.tonangi.com | phone: 201.252.7265 | fax: 619.566.4043

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The truth about search engine optimization

There are many SEO companies that "guarantee" rankings and cost quite a bit of money. It is impossible for any company to guarantee something that they have no control over. Moreover, many SEO companies put your sites in what is known as "link farms". These sites typically increase your page ranking for a short while, however your website can be placed on blacklists which make it impossible for your site to show up within the Top 10 pages of related keyword searches. The new "Google formula" has been created to actively combat SEO companies from exploiting these methods to artificially increase page ranking. If your site currently has a low page ranking in comparison to competing websites with similar keywords, Google can take 6 months or more to crawl your website for an update, which is time that many businesses do not have - especially in this economy.

Real SEO happens organically. This means that you add your business on directories that already have high page ranks such as Yelp, Merchant Circle, and Yellow Pages. Don't stop with just a few - you really need to add your site on hundreds of directories. You should continue to participate in blogs (such as these), but you should try to include your URL as well as other basic company information whenever possible. This will also raise your page ranking. Have you noticed that when you search for certain terms Google will now place YouTube results ahead of other search engine results? Utilizing video can help your SEO efforts.

Many small and medium sized business do not think they can afford television advertising and resort to mediums that are simply not as effective such as artificial search engine optimization, direct mail, radio, or newspaper advertising. Tonangi Media is able to keep your advertising costs low by constantly negotiating with our local and national partners to provide targeted and cost effective advertising both on television as well as the internet. Think how much you have spent on other marketing mediums in the past. These methods may be cheaper but if they don't bring in customers is it really cost effective or is it a waste? With a budget of less then $6,000 you can obtain 1/2 a million views (in most areas) - and target ad placement based on gender, income, and geographical location. We have customers that spend as little as $2,000 a month and customers that spend well over $25,000 a month. You decide your budget and Tonangi Media will help you meet your goals.

Tonangi Media is a full scale video production and advertising agency. We can create your concept, record a custom, video complete with professional voice overs and original animation sequences that will make your advertisement stand out.

Vinod Tonangi | www.tonangi.com | phone: 201.252.7265 | fax: 619.566.4043

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