Saturday, October 8, 2011

Television Advertising History

The definition of 'advertising' which states that it is a form of communication intended to spread awareness about products and services - with the intention of persuading the consumers to go for them, is best highlighted by 'television advertising'. Basically, the term 'television advertisement' refers to a television program which is produced and paid for by an organization to spread awareness about the products and services it has to offer. Being an audio-visual form of advertising, television advertising has a definite edge over its counterparts in the field of mass market advertising, and that makes it is one of the costliest form of advertising today. (A single 30 second ad slot at annual Super Bowl costs around US$3 million.) The seven decade long television advertising history speaks in volumes about the amount of development that this field has been subjected to since its inception.

First Television Commercial
In the United States of America, television advertising history began with the advertisement of Bulova watch manufacturing company on 1st July, 1941. This was not just the first TV advertisement of the United States, but was the first TV commercial of the world as well. The 10 second ad featured a clock superimposed on the map of the United States, accompanied by a voice over saying "America runs on Bulova time." It was aired on NBC (which was then known as WNBT-TV) before a baseball match between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Interestingly, Bulova was the first company to make it to radio advertising as well - a feat achieved by the company earlier 1926 with the first radio commercial of the United States.

Television Advertising Initial Growth
The phenomenal success of Bulova advertisement made other companies jump onto television advertising bandwagon, and very soon some of the major players of that era - including Pan American World Airways and Botany Worsted Mills had television advertisements of their own. The number of television sets in the United States had also increased by a significant margin during 1940s, and by the end of this decade, the number of companies which resorted to television advertising to sell their products had increased manifolds. As a result of the tremendous growth that the television advertising industry had witnessed within a decade of its beginning, the American Association of Advertising Agencies was formed as a regulatory body for TV advertisements.

Single Sponsor Trend
A new trend of advertising - that of single sponsor television programs, surfaced in the United States in 1950s. In this case, a single company sponsored the entire program and used the same as a platform to advertise its products, instead of several companies buying an ad slot on the network as we see today. Among the companies which used the single sponsor program technique efficiently were major companies such as General Electric (GE) and Colgate. The decade also witnessed the introduction of television advertising in Europe - wherein the 60 second long Gibbs Toothpaste commercial aired on 22nd September, 1955, became the first commercial to be aired in Europe.

Commercial Breaks
Yet another important milestone in the history of TV advertising came in 1960s with the introduction of 1-2 minute advertising slots - the commercial breaks, during an ongoing TV show. As opposed to the earlier trend of single sponsor programming, now it was possible for several companies to use a popular program as an advertising platform together. It was one of the most efficient way of marketing, and companies like Tide and Crest took it as an opportunity to expand their ad campaigns. During this period, an hour long television program had around 9-10 minutes reserved for commercial break in which ads with a duration of 30-60 second were aired.

Controversies and Developments
In 1970s, the broadcast of controversial television advertising which promoted cigarettes was banned by the administration. This resulted in a tussle between the government and television networks for whom these ads constituted a significant portion of the total revenue. The decade also marked the advent of alcohol companies in the field of television advertising. The brief history of television advertising between 1970s and 1990s - was marked by some notable changes such as the increase of time slot reserved for commercial breaks from 9 to 19 minutes. The end of 1990s also marked the launch of TiVo - an electronic television programming schedule, which drew flak for its commercial-skipping capabilities. The decade also marked the debut of popular actors and sports person in TV commercials and that paved the way for brand endorsements.

By far, the most important moment of television advertising history was the launch of local cable TV services which brought television advertising - which was until then restricted to large companies, within the reach of small companies. These small companies used cable TV advertising to market their products and services at the local level. In the course of its growth, television advertising has continued to be in the news for good as well as bad reasons. This trend continues even today with television advertising pros and cons dividing the world into two halves - with one half advocating it and other half criticizing it.