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Promotion and Exhibition

Updated: May 18, 2021

Introduction


Promotion and Exhibition is all about the different methods and categories that are involved in the advertisement of products. Promotion is anything that supports or encourages a cause or aim, whereas Exhibition refers to a display or demonstration of a skill. Both of these activities can be summarized as parts of advertisement. Advertisement is a massive skill within the creative industry, as well as a must-have in the modern era, especially due to the increased usage of social media and the internet, meaning products, with good advertisement, can reach global audiences. The aim for this assignment is to research about promotion and exhibition, in order to learn what creates good and bad advertisements, as well as producing some of my own, in relation to what I have learned.


History


First of all, I will be doing some research on the brief history of promotion and exhibition. Advertisement can be dated back to 3000 BC, where a slaveholder wrote on a piece of papyrus paper, information about a lost slave.(Softcube Blog, 2020) Other forms of older advertisement include town criers, who stood around in town verbally advertising businesses. Trademark seals on stone products around 4000 years ago, as well as these seals eventually being transferred into clay seals and then rubber seals on items such as envelopes. In the 16th-18th centuries, advertising advanced a lot, with pub signs, signs in general, posters, trading cards and newspaper ads all starting to get used as methods of promotion. From this point, more printed advertisements were created, such as billboards, magazines and fliers. And more recently, web adverts have become very popular, including video adverts on television, YouTube videos, Facebook adverts and many other forms. The first form of digital advertising came in 1994, when HotWired launched the first digital banner ads, for companies such as Volvo, AT & T as well as IBM. (Softcube Blog, 2020) Facebook ads came around in 2007, after the number of targeting possibilities that advertising platforms could offer to businesses was ever increasing. (Softcube Blog, 2020) "In 2006, Google acquired YouTube for almost $1.7 billion. Now YouTube is one of the world's leading advertising platforms, and is responsible for 37% of the worlds mobile traffic. This shows how much power social media has in reference to promotion and exhibition.


Purpose of Promotion and Exhibition


"I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information." (Ogilvy, D). This quote from David Ogilvy, who was a British advertising tycoon, shows that his thoughts were that the main purpose of promotion and exhibition was information, and the methods chosen to display this information comes second. For example, adverts often make sure to tell the audience what the adverts main goal is, such as television adverts showing off the company and product, as well as price, what the product does, and how to purchase it. Or posters making sure the information is the most readable object on the page, such as company logo, price of product and the product itself being the main attraction, in ways such as font size being bigger than the rest, the picture being the center of the poster, and the logo being very different colours so that it stands out. This isn't always the case however, in 2007, Cadbury decided to air an advert that contained a gorilla playing the drums, playing along to Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight". The set had a purple background, of which is the main colour of Cadbury's, but apart from that, not even the name Cadbury's was mentioned within the advert until the very end. A gorilla playing the drums has nothing to do with chocolate, and so what was the point of this advert? The advert was meant to raise awareness of Cadbury's as a brand, by showing the audience that it was a cool and friendly brand, as everyone was talking about the advert at the time. This shows that promotion and exhibition have lots of different possibilities, and so this is the main cause of this assignment, to research the different types of promotion and exhibition, what types to use and when, and for what different reasons the types are used.(Angelos Gallego, J, 2016). First of all, I will be talking about the main purpose of promotion and exhibition.

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Creating Awareness- One of the main reasons of advertising is to promote your brand or product. Advertising can increase the recognition of a brand name or product by showing it to a wide audience, by letting them know of the products availability and information about the product itself. Creating an awareness of the product or company is always the first step within promotion and exhibition, because until you start to get fans and consumers, there is almost no point of having a company or products. Awareness starts sales, and this can lead to many more opportunities.


Giving the audience the feel that they need the product/ company- A very famous use of advertising, it to make the audience feel as if they need the product/ company. This can be done by showing what the product can do, and how it will improve your day. People are always looking for products that better their day, and if this can be a big part of your advertisement, the product can go a long way.


Improving public opinions and regards- If a product or company are already known, but there are plenty of other options for the same product or category, sometimes adverts can be used to explain what your company/product has that others don't. This can be done in many ways, such as showing that your product is superior, showing why the company is a good company, such as showing the good the company does i.e- charity, community work, recycling and renew ability. This can also be seen as building the companies image, making the company look more relatable to the public, and showing that they care about communities and the consumers themselves, directly leading to a bigger audience and loyal fans.


Marketing a product- The most common use of an advert is to show off a new product, such as a new food item at a restaurant or a new gadget from a technology firm. These adverts often show why they new product is better, as well as why the audience needs this new product. The adverts can be used in many different media, and can be tackled from different angles such as direct sales, creative adverts that make the audience think, or to gain media attention and much more.



All of these purposes of Promotion and Exhibition were created with help from this website (McQuerrey L, 2020).


The Evolution of Advertisement


Advertising has been ever present in forms such as posters, signs and billboards, but adverts have changed drastically since the arrival of the world wide web. Technology has changed the media of which the adverts are viewed on, but also how the consumers interact with the adverts.

The first television advert aired in 1941, and especially during the 1950's, this was considered the "golden era" of advertisement, such as cheesy commercials and billboards. During this time, adverts were often centered around characters, such as Tony the Tiger for Frosties, "to create a semblance of connection between viewers and brands" (Angelos Gallego, J, 2016). The main aim of these adverts was also very simple, and that was to sell the product. People loved watching commercial during this time, but this has since changed dramatically. Adverts have been changing slowly since the 1950's, including becoming less cheesy, being shorter and more precise, as well as being creative, and at times, conceptual. But the biggest change came around in 2013, when consumers got sick of advertisements on sites such as YouTube and Facebook, and so AdBlockers were created. "This new trend of saying no to ads is thought to have cost publishers up to $22 billion in revenue in 2015". (Angelos Gallego, J, 2016). Coupled with pay-To-Stream services such as Netflix, where consumers pay to not watch advertisements, in this era, advertisements are become obsolete and not tolerated. So how has is this issue being addressed? First of all, in a method to connect companies with consumers, social media influencers are being used to advertise products, such as reviews of the products, as well as partnered videos, where the influencer makes a video, related to the product, such as product try-ons for fashion products, or photography challenges for phones etc. Adverts are also now less aggressive, and come across to the consumer in a creative manner, in which the consumers sometimes have to think about what the advert is about. This change in stance of advert creation is because people trust other people more than brands. Building a loyal fan base is starting to be seen as more important, then 1 time buyers. This can be seen in an advert by Patagonia, a fashion brand. Their advert in 2014 consists of people who have bought Patagonia wear or products, and have been using them for years, as they talk about their experiences in the products. This advert showcased that Patagonia products last a long time, as well as being sustainably made. This creates a bond between the consumer and the brand, and this is very important in the modern era.





Bibliography;


(Softcube Blog, 2020) The Entire History of Advertising, available at; https://softcube.com/the-entire-history-of-advertising/ (accessed 5th May 2021)

(Angelos Gallego, J, 2016) The History and Evolution of Advertising, The Product is no longer the centerpiece, available at; https://www.tintup.com/blog/history-evolution-advertising-marketing/(accessed 5th May 2021)

(McQuerrey L, 2020) What Best Explains the Purpose of Advertising? available at ; https://smallbusiness.chron.com/explains-purpose-advertising-36432.html (accessed 5th May 2021)

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