Basics Of Advertising

Preface

Audience members are constantly exposed to a plethora of adverts
in the various media. These adverts target the audience while they
are at home (through print and broadcast media, including the
internet) and while they are outside their homes (through
outdoor/transit media). This development could lead to advertising
avoidance, where the audience members switch to another channel
when they feel that adverts are interrupting programme flow or the
viewer/listener is tired of being exposed to an avalanche of adverts
that come through various channels all day long. Creativity is
required for an advert message to break through the cluttered
advertising environment and genuinely draw the attention of the
audience to a product or service. Creative advertising is a persuasive
and convincing communication process which arouses and keeps
audience interest on an advert, and stirs their desire to purchase the
advertised brand.
Basics of Advertising: Principles, Creative Strategies, and
Issues provides basic knowledge of what it takes to come up with
exciting, interesting and persuasive advert messages that will attract
audience attention and arouse the desire to purchase and keep using
a specific product brand. This book uses vivid examples in
explaining the basic concepts of advertising and creative strategies
that could be adopted in producing a goal-oriented advertisement. It
further discusses some issues in advertising practice which critics
are worried about. The book is a three-part book, with each part
treating a major theme in advertising theory and practice.
The first part is on advertising principles. It provides a
conceptual explanation of advertising, basic functions of
advertising, classification, and media of advertising. This part also
takes a concise look at how the various components of advertising
industry such as the advertiser, the media, government and
advertising agencies play crucial roles in determining the nature of
advertising practice in any society. The regulatory bodies in
advertising were also treated in this part.
The second which dwells on the theme ‘advertising creative
strategies’ is a discuss on practical ways to translate a creative advert
idea into an actual persuasive message. It briefly explains the
elements of advertising creative strategies, the creative brief and
creative team members. This part tells the reader how to make an ad
copy creative, persuasive, and goal-oriented.
The third part of this book is on issues in advertising. This
part discusses the economic and social issues in advertising with
local and international examples to buttress the points. Issues of
gender, stereotypes and culture as they relate to advertising
practiced were also discussed in this part. This includes the
deceptive practices which are covertly or overtly seen in various
local and international ads.
This book adopts easy-to-understand writing style in
providing background knowledge of advertising principles, creative
strategies and issues to the reader. It is pocket book that provides a
quick but depth knowledge of how creativity is embedded in an
advert to make it result-oriented. It is a relevant handbook for
advertising scholars, practitioners and students who wish to
constantly keep in touch with the basics of advertising creative
strategies and tactics. It is pertinent to point out that some parts of my
books “Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Ecology in the
Global Village” and “Magazine and Newspaper Management and
Production” were extensively used in this is book. This second
edition comes with updated examples and explanation of some
topics.