Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

Chapter - 1

History of Advertising and Its Development

Introduction

In this chapter an overview of the history of advertising in general and in India

has been given. First part of this chapter makes a brief review of the history of
advertising in general then in second part history of advertising and its
development in India has been discussed. Also this chapter gives a brief
account of internet and its role in advertising, which include online advertising
and its type, difference between online advertising and traditional advertising
and its importance in Indian market.

1.1 Beginning of Advertising

According to N.H. Borden, writing in the economic effects of advertising,

defines advertising as “Advertising include those activities by which visual or
oral message are addressed to the public for the purpose of informing them
and influencing them either to buy merchandise or services or to act or be
inclined, favorably towards ideas, institutions or persons features” (Rege,
1972: 7). From the above quotation it has been seen that advertising is one of
the major tools of selling which manufactures and traders have been using
since many centuries. It has been followed that the origins of advertising
remains thousands of years in the past and the outdoor display were the first
identified methods of advertising which were generally an eye-catching sign
inscribed on the wall of a building. Many such signs have been discovered by
the archeologist in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. Some three

57
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

thousand years ago Papyrus sheets were used in Thebes in Egypt for
announcing the reward for return of runaway slaves (Meenakshi R. Chandran,
1998: 24). The earliest advertisement was in the form of stenciled inscriptions
which were found on earthen bricks of Babylonians about three thousand
years before Christ. The bricks bear the name of the temple and the name of
the king who built the temple. In this process a stencil in hand stone was to
cut and with it each brick was stamped while the clay had been in its son
stage. In this way the kings had advertised themselves to their subjects who
could be read in hieroglyphics (F. Pres Berg, 1980:2).

In medieval period a simple but effective form of advertising was very popular.
Merchants employed the so called "town criers" who shouted the praises of
the merchants' wares and the arrival of trade-ships (Sandage and Fryburger:
1987, 17). Printed advertising have no big role until the invention of the
printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1445. Later the printers and
merchants used flyers to advertise their products. These flyers often
contained characteristic symbols of the association members and the
tradesmen and were also used as a poster on walls. In the past days it has
been seen that there was a very limited scope for advertisements. In this time
it would be seen the first forms of advertisements were sign -boards and
writings on the walls of prominent buildings. Sampson mentioned in his
History of Advertising, which was first published in 1874, points out that the
signs over shops and stalls seem naturarally to have been the first efforts in
the direction of advertisements and they go back to the remotest portions of
the world's history (Henry Sampson, 1930:19). These early signs were, made
of stone or terracotta and set in to the pilasters at the sides of the open shop
fronts. Later, these signs were hung over the entrances of shops and some of
them had been extended entirely across the streets. A new era of advertising

58
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

has been started in the 1880s in which the new methods of manufacturing
had been greatly increased outputs and decreased costs for the producers of
consumer goods. The products at that time could be pack up at the plant
itself. Moreover, the telegraph network came into existence and a network of
rail - roads, had also crisscrossed the continent. All these were the factors,
which permitted a nation-wide distribution and nation-wide advertising. By
G.M. Rege in his text book “Advertising Art & Ideas” advertising has been
analyzed in which the history of advertising can broadly be divided into six
periods or stages, which are as follows:

a. Pre-printing period, prior to the Fifteenth century.

b. Early printing period from the Fifteenth century to about 1840.

c. Period of expansion, from 1840 to 1900.

d. Period of consolidation from 1900 to 1925.

e. Period of scientific development, from 1925 to 1945.

f. Period of business and social integration from 1945 to the present.

a. Pre- Printing Period

In this period 'Town criers' were the first resources of supplementing sign
advertising to the masses. These 'criers' had license from the Government
and were often organized as part of a union. Frank Presbrey mentioned that
in the region of Berry in France, in the year 1141, twelve 'criers' organized a
company and obtained a charter from Louis VII giving them the exclusive
rights of town crying in that region. The power of commercial criers grew to an
extent that they were able to obtain a decree from the ruler of the land forcing
shopkeepers to employ a 'crier'(1920:10-11)

59
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

b. Early Printing Period

In this period the invention of the printing press and the betterment of
education meant much to business. It had ushered the way to the production
of advertisements in bulk for wide distribution. By this time the first printed
English advertisement was a 'poster' or „handbill‟ announcement which was
written by William Caxton in 1472 (Sandage & Fryburger, 1987:17). After that
the printing press was being used in a fashion, which led to gradual growth
and development of advertising by providing a practical, readily available
medium to deliver advertising messages to the literate portion of the
populous. A lot of the early newspaper advertisements were in the type of
announcements of a pure informative nature (Blanche B Elliott, 1962:22). In
this period cosmetics, beverages and patent medicines shared a prominent
place among the advertisements appeared in media. The famous early
advertisers were product importers, which were new to England. For example,
the first promotion of coffee was made in a newspaper advertisement in 1652,
followed by an offering of chocolate in 1657 and of tea in 1658 (James H.
Young, 1961:10). During the first half of the early printing period, England was
the centre of advertising development. In the 1700's advertising also started to
develop in America in a significant manner. However, early American
advertising was largely free from the exaggeration found in English
advertisements. With comparing patent medicine advertising in these two
countries up to 1750, James Young (1961) says: "While the English proprietor
sharpened up his adjectives and reached his vitriol, in America, with rare
exceptions advertisers were content merely to list by name their supplies of
imported English remedies" (Sandage and Fryburger, 1987:24). During this
period the growth of advertising in both Europe and the United States has
been gaining popularity through the number of increasing periodicals and

60
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

newspapers in circulation similarly. However, in 1712, England introduced a

tax on newspapers and advertising, which resulted in a slowdown of
advertisement in newspapers. (Meenakshi R. Chandran: 1998:26). In 1853
the taxes on both newspapers and advertisements were revoked in England.
During this period in the United States no tax was imposed in the circulation of
newspapers which was much larger compared to England.

c. Period of Expansion

This period includes roughly sixty years between 1840 and 1900. Between
these periods a vital influence of advertising on the businesses was witnessed
in the United States. In 1840, railroads in the United States were recognized
as an efficient means of transportation. This had led to the broadening of
markets and had resulted in an increase in the number of advertisements in
magazines which catered to large territories (Sabharwal, Dhruv, 2018:23).
The growth in the number of magazines in circulations was mainly due to the
development of rapid and long distance transportation system. This parallel
movement is rather striking, while it does not prove a casual relationship
between the growths of long distance transportation and advertising media, it
is logical to believe that the increase of transportation facilities did have a
definite influence on the rapid rise in the number of publications. In fact, the
increased revenue from the sale of advertising space encouraged a growth in
the number of publications and their wider circulation. Advertisements in this
period were generally trade advertisements in nature, announcing the arrival
of shipments of coffee, tea, silk etc. Advertisements at this time were also
designed especially for dealers in consumer goods as well as grocery or dry
goods (Sandage and Fryburger, 1987:27). During this period advertisements
were handled by printers and publishers of newspapers mostly, who used to

61
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

sell advertisement space to procure necessary finances for their growth and
expansion.

Many of the advertisements during this period were of the classified variety,
which had carried classified business information. During 1893 more than half
of over a hundred companies, spending more than fifty thousand dollars
annually on advertising were patent medicine manufacturers. However, only
twenty years later many of these companies were not patent medicine
manufacturers anymore but manufacturers of food, soap, cosmetics and
automobiles. These companies began to market their packaged goods under
various brand names. Some of the first brands were Ivory, Colgate, Wrigley,
Coca Cola etc. Previously household products of daily use like milk, sugar,
soap, rice and candles had been sold in the neighborhood shops in bulk
packages. The entrance of consumer market during mid nineteenth century
gave rise to the modern marketing system, which had led to the emergence of
consumer advertisements by late nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth
century the half tone printing process was introduced which aided the ability to
publish a realistic pictorial display. Further development of Chromolithography
especially in Germany, enabled the use of color picture which rendered
advertisements more eye catching. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century there has been appearance of consumer product advertisements like
tooth pastes, shampoos, readymade dresses etc. in magazines.

d. Period of Consolidation

This period stretches over of 25 years from 1900 to 1925. “In 1911 a crusade
against the ranker types of untruthfulness in advertising was launched in the
United States" (Sandage and Fryburger,1987:27). Printers Ink. Inc., Curtis
Publishing Company and other organizations led the fight to reduce or

62
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

eliminate the use of gross exaggeration, false testimonials and other forms of
misleading and untruthful advertising (B.Narayan, 1998:14). Also during this
period trust - busting, expose and reform programs became popular and also
not surprising that advertising was caught up in this clean up movement. The
Associated Advertising clubs of America assisted in launching a campaign to
encourage truthful and ethical advertising. As a result, several codes for truth
in advertising were devised. Probably the most famous was the Printers Ink.
Statute, published in 1911 (anon: 1918). It was a model that indicated the
types of activities that were considered ethical, unethical and questionable.
The establishment of the Audit Bureau of Circulations in 1914 was another
move to reduce untruths in the field. The Bureau sews to validate the
circulation statements made by publishers. This was a determination for self
preservation but it sewed to consolidate the gains made in the heyday of
publication and advertising growth. Later several advertising organizations
and groups like the Advertising Federation of America, American Association
of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, Audit Bureau of
Circulations, and Direct Mail Advertising Association were formed. Also
Outdoor Advertising Association and various publishers associations were
formed or became active as a result of these changes. These groups tended
to glove a semi-professional character to the advertising business. They have
had some influence in solidifying the business and in raising the ethics
somewhat above the levels of previous periods. It is interesting to note that
the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1918 (anon: 1918),
placed little or no emphasis on the importance of studying the consumer, their
buying habits, needs and desires. This factor emerged as a vital element in
advertising later for advertisers. In the end of this period many advertisers had
established their own market and consumer research departments and
specialised research firms had been organised to make independent and

63
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

unbiased investigations for advertisers. This increased the quality of

advertising strategy and the performance as well as benefits rendered to
consumers. World War I witnessed advertising as a profession and regarded
it as a tool of social engineering with advertisements being used to mobilize
public opinion in favor of the war. The support of social scientists and
psychologists to the U.S advertising industry in 1920's contributed towards
marking this industry more dynamic and imaginative. Product appeals were
emphasized less and greater prominence had been laid on appeals such as
fear, hope, emotions, insecurity, attachments, desires, etc. The introduction of
Radio in 1920 marked a remarkable development in the advertising world.
The early stages excluded the use of radio for advertising, only to be included
two years later with the W.E.A.F. broadcasting station in New York selling
radio time to producers. Thus during 1920s advertisers and their agents had
come to realize the possibilities of radio as a means for attracting the
prospective consumers of various products and services. With its drama and
immediacy, radio could convey their messages directly to the consumers who
would not need to purchase a publication or even need to be literate. By the
mid 1920s, advertisers' sponsored programmes on Radio were a common
feature in the U.S. only to be joined by T.V.

e. Period of Scientific Development

This period witnessed the function of the scientific methods to resolve the
problems of advertising. This time knowledge was arranged to a much greater
degree than before also facts were observed, recorded and classified through
the application of various scientific tools. There were a few major advertising
men who were suggest that advertising be subjected to tests to prove or
disprove its ability to work the wonders claimed for it. In this time advertising
appropriations receiving liberal cuts, both professional advertising men and

64
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

advertisers set out to test the effectiveness of advertising as a selling tool

(C.H. Sandage and Varnon Fryburger,1987:29). Thus, emphasis began to be
placed on consumer research with a view to make advertisements more
meaningful and ethical. These efforts introduced the Audience Research
Institute formed by A.C. Nelson and George Gallup to evaluate the
advertisements on psychological basis, which had enabled the businessmen
in improving considerably the quality of advertisements. Many agencies and
organizations in this period were giving serious attention to various methods
for testing the sales effectiveness of advertising strategy, media and copy.
This was a new philosophy in the sense that it had meant subjecting the work
of the creator, the artist and the person who depended upon his own insight
and intuition to some kind of performance yardsticks.

f. Period of Business and Social Integration

In 1950s television was introduced which responded fast to the advertising-

media .The rising popularity of T.V. became an important mass
communication media and recreation which contributed greatly in advertising
business. This in turn had led to a host of American companies to start
sponsoring T.V. programmes. Now advertisers could demonstrate the use of
their products and services and present well-known figures to praise such
products and services. They also could communicate emotions through
television. With the passage of time, advertising assumed an important
position as a means of mass communication in Industrial societies. It
generated greater sales and also had played a dynamic role in boosting the
images of companies. With the increased recognition the advertising
organizations became as a part of society and facilitated other organizations
all over the world to establish them as an integral factor in the broadcasting of
vital information pertaining to various products and services beneficial to the

65
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

society. Also advertisements have become a common medium through which

churches, political parties, labor groups, trade associations and the ordinary
people communicate their ideologies, ideas and concepts to many of the
public making up the total society. Advertising had also turn into an institution
of persuasion to promote such social and economic values as safety, health,
education benevolence liberty, democracy, free enterprise and tolerance.

Today, advertising is wide- spread all over the world in almost all countries.
However, advertising trends vary from country to country. The turbulent
environment of the present century, with rapid changes in technology,
products, processes, methods cut throat competition and emergence of new
marketing challenges only indicates the significant role of advertising, which is
expected to play in the survival and growth of business units.

1.2. HISTORY OF ADVERTISING IN INDIA

Advertising in India dates back to the primeval Indian civilization. Relics of

Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro signified the names engraved on exquisite earthen,
stone or metal works which is comparable to the present trade mark system
.Paintings or writings on wall indicating slogans or stone engravings indicate a
form of advertising (Meenakshi R. Chandran, 1998:29). The first forms of
advertising were mostly used for religious purposes as a religious
propaganda. For example, to spread the teachings of Buddha, the emperor
Asoka of Kallinga set up rock and pillar edicts all over the Indian territory
between 563 and 232 B.C. (Chunnawalla. Kumar, Sethia and Subramanniam,
1999:18). These rock and pillar announcement can be called the prototype of
poster advertising of today. Therefore, it was the outdoor advertising that
came to light with the point of sale display in market places. The indoor visual
communications were the wall paintings in the cave temples of Ajanta, Sanchi

66
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

and Amravati. Literally the Indian advertising starts with the hawkers calling
out their wares right from the days when cities and markets first began. Till the
arrival of British rule in India, advertising was not taken for business purposes.
The reasons were that India was the unique example of household industrial
activities. On the time of British entry, India was in village economy stage
where the relations between the producers and consumers were direct. The
local markets were weekly and the producers displayed their wares by
shouting and giving samples for promoting their trade. The skills of Indian
artisans in the areas of textiles, silk, cotton and metal works were all accepted
and there was no need of any special efforts for advertising. British settlement
and ruling from 1600 onwards brought about certain changes in our country.
British needed advertising efforts to popularize their goods, particularly the
luxury goods. They made it possible through the print medium. The first
printing press was brought by Portuguese in 1556, which was used
exclusively for printing Christian literature. It was only in 1780 that the first
Indian newspaper was started, namely the 'Bengal Gazette' in Calcutta. By
1786, there were four weekly newspapers and a few monthlies published from
Calcutta. It was in the 'Bengal Journal' that all the government advertisements
were printed during that period. In 1790, „The Courier‟ published from Bombay
during that period also contained advertisement in various Indian languages
namely Marathi, Guajarati, Konkani, Urdu and Kannada. In 1791, the
„Government Gazette‟ was started in which all the government advertisements
in different provincial languages were printed. Though the first newspaper in
an Indian language was started in 1833, it took pretty long time to put
advertisements in Indian languages. There were no advertising agencies but
the newspapers had provided the services of space selling during then
(C.N.Sontakki, 2001:490). The origin of commercial advertising in India is
relatively recent. „B. Dattaram and Co.' was the first advertising agency

67
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

formed in the country in 1905 (Meenakshi R. Chauhan, 1998:30). The growth

of Indian advertising too has been slow with the pre-independence era. Only a
few companies were engaged in the business of advertising on an
unprofessional basis and had remained almost confined to the media buying
services with very little creative work. Until the outbreak of the World War 1
(1914-1918), most of the advertising was planned and placed by the foreign
manufacturers. During the First World War, the newspaper circulation was
increased as the people were interested in hot news of war affairs. During the
post war period Indian market was flooded with foreign goods that gave a lot
of spurt to newspaper advertising so that more and more space had been
reserved for advertising. After the First World War, the Indian agencies failed
because of the acute competition, mostly from the British and the American
agencies. The Indian agencies had a tough time but could learn the
importance of agency business as a rich source of employment and earnings.
It made them to try the outdoor advertising media as many of the newspaper
media were under the control of foreign agencies. In 1918, the first
professionally managed modern advertising agency, 'Tats Publicity' was
started by Lastromach a British army officer in Bombay followed by D. Jekey
More's operation in 1929 and the 'Thompson Advertising Agency' which
started its operation in India in early 1930's. (Meenakshi R. Chauhan:
1998:30) In fact, 1930's can be considered as the period of consolidation in
the history of Indian advertising. The 'Swadeshi' movement made a turning
point in the history of advertising in India as this movement had led to the
increased appearance of advertisements in the country with a view to
popularize Indian goods against the imported stuff.

Indian advertising has had many changing faces. The pre independence
advertisements were mostly about ladies goods, men‟s clothes, travelling,

68
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

restaurants and hotels and entertainments for the British people in India.
Motor cars, electricity and lifts in houses were considered to be the items of
luxuries in those periods. Many of the early advertisements were about hotels,
four wheelers, tea, gramophones, cotton goods, tailoring shops etc. and their
target audiences were the British people in India, the princely families and the
people from the upper strata of the society. It is only after independence and
the abolition of the princely order that a new-born middle class received
attention of advertisers.

As against 14 Advertising agencies in 1914, there were 45 agencies in 1944,

indicating over a threefold increase in the number of agencies. However, the
gross annual media billing was just Rs. 5 crore. This indicates that the initial
stages were marked by a slow growth in advertising agencies in the country.
Among the reasons cited for such a sluggish growth were the unfavorable
attitudes of companies towards advertising, limited market, slow pace of
industrialization and lack of competition. The increased competition
demanded a thorough improvement in the quality of advertising work and
services. To improve the art-work and copy illustration, Indian agencies used
to send their employees abroad for special trainings. The All India Radio also
started telecasting various programmes in 1936. In 1939, The Indian and
Eastern Newspaper Society was founded to protect and promote the
legitimate interests of the newspapers and to deal collectively with the
government agencies and the advertisers (C.N.Sontakki, 2001:490). In 1941,
Indian Languages Newspapers Association was formed to deal with the
problems of Indian language newspapers. By the end of World War II, the
political and economic scene underwent a sweeping change. Consequently
the scarcity conditions prevailing in the Indian economy gave much impetus to
the growth and development of light and small industries. In 1945, the

69
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

Association of Advertising Agencies of India (A.A.A.1) was created to promote

the standards of advertising and to regulate advertising practices through a
code of conduct. In 1948 Audit Bureau of Circulations of India (A.B.C.I) was
initiated on the lines of A.B.C. of America. In 1952, The Indian Society of
Advertisers was formed to promote the interests of advertisers so as to raise
the standard of Indian advertising. Until independence, the numbers of large
scale industries in India were limited. Though there were some foreign
cosmetic Industries in major cities, their products were not of any natural
popularity. After independence, the Five Year Plans were implemented and
several factories and large scale projects have emerged. Consequently,
production and transportation facilities have increased tremendously. These
spurts in various activities enabled the distribution of products anywhere in the
country and this marked the beginning of the 'Golden Age' of advertising in
India (Esther Thorson: 1992:22-26).

Advertisements in the Indian print media achieved a considerable importance

only from the beginning of the twentieth century. Educational development
and the popularization of media had also contributed much to the expansion
in the field of advertising in India. Advertisers' Club of Bombay was started in
1955 and such clubs had emerged later in all the metropolitan cities in India.
The telecasting of programmes through TV had commenced in India on 15th
September 1959 at Delhi. Besides these, there are some other forms of
publicity used by the advertisers, which include the use of short films, slide
shows, messages on the radio and in T.V. Henceforth T.V. advertising has
become popular in India as it is in abroad. Film advertising has also gained
popularity among the advertisers and the consumers alike in India. To a large
extent advertisements could be showcased through cinema theatres even in
the remotest corners of the country by advertisers. Radio advertising has

70
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

been introduced by the All-India Radio at Bombay from first November 1967
(anon, 1992:718). This pilot project was started with commercials being put
over low power Vivid Bharati transmitters at Bombay, Pune and Nagpur it has
gained a wide popularity among the traders and industrialists. Radio
advertising has also been introduced in Calcutta since September 1968 and
later extended to Delhi, Madras, Tiruchirappalli(1969); Chandigarh, Jalandhar,
Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad (1970),
Hyderabad - Vijayawada (1971), Bhopal, lndore, Cuttack, Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Patna, Ranchi, Trivandrum, Calicut and Srinagar (1975). Advertisement has
been accepted in many languages as tape recorded „spots‟ of various
durations sponsored programmes have been introduced in radios since may
1970. Now more than 100 percent of the total population in the country is
covered by the All India Radio (AIR).

The television age has now dawned on India. It started in a very humble
fashion by way of experimental transmissions at Delhi on 15 September 1959.
The early television advertisements were merely stills with voiceovers or short
versions of cinema advertisements. Regular T.V. was first introduced in 1965
and there has been a large scale expansion. The television set up in India
was delinked from the All India Radio on 1st April 1976 under its new name
'Doordarshan'. A separate department meant for the full development of the
medium and specialized skills particular to television. Presently there are ten
Doordarshan T.V. stations in the country. The year 1976 -77 was a turning
point in the history of Indian advertising. It was in this year that the
Doordarshan (DD) started accepting advertisements. Commercial advertising
on television was introduced in a small way on 1st January 1976 and the
revenue from commercial advertising has shot up at an astronomical rate,
leading to a flooding of sponsored programmes resulting the opening of a

71
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

second channel in Delhi and Bombay. The first burst of public sector
advertising was in the 1980's but what catapulted the industry on to a higher
plane was the landmark launch of color television on August 15, 1982. Color
printing in newspapers and magazines also brought about a new hue to their
readability. To proclaim the serious role of advertising in competitive
scenarios, the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) was born.
Satellite T.V. has ushered in epochal changes in entertainment in awareness
of trends and lifestyles abroad. It has also dramatically expanded media
options and influenced the styles and substances of advertising, which is now
richer and stronger in imagery and emotional appeal (S.R. Madhu,1996:18).
Due to globalization and growing technology the Indian advertising firms have
also been entering into the sphere of global tie-ups. Advertising on the
Internet is also growing rapidly in India. Many of the advertising agencies in
India are spreading on the latest tool like note books, digital studios and
media planning software. Computers and computer graphics have brought
new opportunity, versatility, speed and value to advertisement production in
India. Advancements in printing technology and color processing have
enabled the Indian advertisers to bring out hi-fidelity advertisements of
international standards in various magazines and periodicals. Videotronics
and special effects have also enabled the Indian advertisers to improve the
production quality of T.V. advertisements.

1.3 Internet and its role in advertising

The internet is a worldwide system of unified computer networks that

interchange data by packet switching using the Internet Protocol (IP). It is a
network that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business and
government networks of local to international scope that are linked by copper
wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections and other technologies. The

72
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

internet contains various information resources and services, such as

electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, file sharing, online gaming and the
inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web
(WWW). The terms "Internet" and "World Wide Web" are often used in every-
day speech without much distinction. However, the internet and the World
Wide Web are not one and the same. The internet is the global data
communications system where hardware and software infrastructure provides
connectivity between computers. In contrast, the WWW is one of the services
communicated via the internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents
and other resources, linked by symbolic hyperlinks and URLs
(translationdirectory.com/articles/article1681.php). Internet plays a very
prominent and significant role because it acts as guidance for different
strategies involved in money marketing (Maddy, 2011: http://www.
seomastering.com/seo-forum/search_engine_optimization_basics/importance
_of_internet_in_ecommerce/). In fact it has been a necessity in almost all
fields. It gives contribution in e-business and e-commerce which opens an
opportunity to a faster, accurate and efficient customer service with a less
consumed time and cost. Internet technologies enable to have a direct
communication link for customer and supplier, as a result there is a high
chance of elimination of intermediary people which is the main cause of high
cost and delay (Cathrine, 2013: http://www.seomastering.com/seo-forum/
search_engine_optimization_basics/importance_of_internet_in_ecommerce/).
Internet has influenced the business of commerce and had made so many
businesses popular and individuals rich. A good example of this is the social
networking site Facebook. The owner of Facebook.com has become rich by
providing an avenue for people to chat, share pictures, videos and reconnect
with long lost friends and families.

73
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

Internet has advanced over the years and it has also changed the way we
live. Before internet if we want to purchase something, we need to go to the
nearest shop to be able to get what we want but today we can get almost
anything that we want with just a click of a mouse or just a press of a button.
The internet work as a sales channel for electronic commerce, it gives
retailers an additional channel to sell their products and services. Advertising
through internet which is also called online advertising or web advertising is
one of the best ways to promote and attract more customers these days as
people are now interconnected globally through technological framework.
Businesses are able to attract customer attention with ease through the help
of online advertising which appears on various websites in the form of social
media banners, pop-ups, banner advertisement etc. Online advertisement is a
key communication medium for e- commerce through which the organization
can track and test their product acceptance and also collect feedback from
their customers promptly. Presently most of the people are engaged with
internet in different ways like social media websites, SEO (Search engine
optimization), business websites, educational websites, job websites etc.
where they can easily see advertisement of different sectors like apparels,
fashion, consumer goods, travel and tourism etc. It is the internet‟s capability
to manage enormous volumes of database that can be easily extracted from
the shell and which is one of the biggest boons to organization‟s internet
advertising strategy. The frequent users of internet are seeking information at
a large scale and getting profits in their respective fields both in terms of
products or services they require. When users come online they are generally
preparing themselves for seeking the information that the internet is offering to
them. This is the major reason which distinguishes online advertising from
other means of advertising vehicles. It also offers low cost advertisement
budget to the company in comparison to traditional ads. Online advertising,

74
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

particular with social media websites provide a low cost solution to engage
with large established communities. Also it gives better returns than other
media along with the huge database through which advertiser could easily
maintain electronic relationship management with the consumer (ECRM). On
the other side consumer also get whole details about the products and
services at their own convenience to get them delivered at their doorstep
which also helps them to reduce transportation cost, get free services, easy
availability, different options availability etc. There are many types of internet
advertising for example display advertising, banner ads, floating ads, SEM
(Search engine marketing), SEO (Search engine optimization) web banner
advertising, pop up/pop under, interstitial, trick banners, text ads, sponsored
search, email advertising, chat advertising, online classified advertising,
expanding ads, frame ads etc. (Khan & Pal,2014:2).

1.4 Online advertising

Advertising on any website is called as online advertising or web advertising.

Online advertising is the new media through which ads are delivered to the
internet users via websites, email, ad supported software, text message and
internet enabled Smartphone. “The beginning of online advertising was in
1994 when Hot Wired sold first banner on the company's own site, and later
online advertising evolved to become a key factor in which companies
achieve fair returns for their products and services” (Bakshi & Gupta, 2013:
22). Online ads gives the ability to display message to thousand of internet
users or one could display the message on selected websites to target a
specific set of internet users. These days online advertising has become
popular in multiple industries such as tourism, education, arts, information
technology, consumer products etc. Online advertising is used to achieve the
following business objectives i.e. increase brand awareness, increase sales,

75
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

increase in customers purchase and increase in customers retention. It has a

huge potential for building customer relationships, measurability and speed
through advertisements. The real advantage of online advertising is its
interactive nature. It provides a new and virtually limitless opportunity to reach
new audiences. M.S.Khan and Shilpi Pal mentioned that Philip Kotler has
discussed in his Marketing Management Millennium Edition book that
“Companies can place online ads in three ways: (1) in special sections offered
by the major commercial online services; (2) in selected Internet newsgroups
that are set up for commercial purposes; and (3) using ads that pop up while
subscribers are surfing on-line services or Web sites, including banner ads,
pop-up windows, “tickers” i.e. banners that move across the screen, and
“roadblocks” i.e. full-screen ads that users must click through to get to other
screens” (2014:1). Online advertisement is the best mode for the company‟s
to track and test their products acceptance and also feedback from their
customers very quickly and even also receives responses indirectly when one
clicks on ads and then it directly hit to the advertiser log book by which
company can easily trace their likings for their products. While the main form
of web ads are the banner ads, which function as same way as traditional
advertisements are intended to function.

1.5 Types of Online Advertising Delivery methods

a. Web banner advertising

Web banner advertising is a rectangular graphic display that stretches across

the top or bottom of a website or down the right or left sidebar. The former
type of banner advertisement is called a leader board, while the latter is called
a skyscraper. Banner ads are image-based rather than text-based and are a
popular form of website advertising. The purpose of banner advertising is to

76
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

promote a brand and/or to get visitors from the host website to go to the
advertiser's website (Hayes, 2019: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/
banneradvertising.asp). See below fig 1.5. a).

Image 1.5.a example of web banner ads

b. Pop-ups and Pop-under ads

A pop-up window is a new browser window created (launched or opened),

either by the user clicking a button/link, or automatically when a webpage is
first viewed (loaded) or is linked away from (unloaded). They are a form of
online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to increase web traffic or
capture e-mail addresses. It works when certain websites open a new web
browser window to display advertisements. The pop-up window containing an
advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript, but can be generated by
other means as well. Whereas a pop-under ads is first opened, and then
moved behind the content window. The new window is then only visible if the
user systematically closes content window before quitting/closing their
browser, or if the content window do not fill the screen (Chavan: 2011:84).

77
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

Gaurav Bakshi & Surender Kumar Gupta mention about pop-up and pop-
under ads that Pop-up ads is a new window which opens in front of the
current one, displaying an advertisement, or entire webpage and similar to a
Pop-Up ads except that the window pop under ads is loaded or sent behind
the current window so that the user does not see it until they close one or
more active windows(2013:25). See below image 1.5.b.(i) and 1.5.b(ii).

Image 1.5.b.(i) Pop-up Ad

Image1.5.b(ii) Pop-Under Ad

78
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

c. Floating ad

A floating ad is a type of rich media web advertisement that appears

uninitiated, superimposed over a user-requested page, and disappears or
becomes unobtrusive after a specific time period (typically 5-30 seconds). The
most basic floating ads simply appear over the web page, either full screen or
in a smaller rectangular window. They may or may not provide a means of
escape, such as a close button. More sophisticated versions can come in any
shape or size and include sound, animation, and interactive components
(Bakshi & Gupta, 2013:23). See below image 1.5.c.

Image 1.5.c Floating ad

d. Expanding ad

An expanding ad is a rich media frame ad that changes dimensions upon a

predefined condition, such as a preset amount of time a visitor spends on a
webpage, the user's click on the ad, or the user's mouse movement over the

79
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

ads. Expanding ads allow advertisers to fit more information into a restricted
ad space (2013:wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_advertising). According to Gaurav
Bakshi and Surender Kumar Gupta expanding ads are the ads that expand
when users click on them. The ads do not expand just from hovering over
hyperlinks, which is a technique used by some other advertisers (2013:23).
See image 1.5.d.

Image 1.5.d Expanding ad

e. Trick banners

A trick banner is a banner ad that looks like a dialog box with buttons. It
simulates a real error message that you have to respond to by clicking the
button, which is actually fake. Like any banner, clicking anywhere on the
graphic will send you to the intended website. (http://encyclopedia2.thefree-
dictionary.com/trick+banner). See below fig 1.5.e.

80
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

Image 1.5.e. Trick Banner ad

1.6. Significance of Online advertising:

Advertising is the branch of marketing that deals with communicating to

customers about products, brands, services and companies (2017: https://
tvital96.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-advantages-disadvantages-of.html). Today
online advertising work as a global communications medium and provides
advertisers with unique and often cost-effective ways of reaching audiences.
Online advertising is almost a necessity for modern businesses, especially
those that do business outside of their local community. Consumers use them
for more than simply entertainment or information, as they do with radio,
television, magazines and newspapers. Today marketers use online
advertising to communicate with their target audiences. Through online
advertising, marketers build brand loyalty for their products, increase website

81
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

traffic, generate sales, build a social media following and improve customer
convenience. Consumers are getting benefits like great offers, huge
discounts, delivery on time, no transportation expenses, can explore many
things at one place and time, users stay updated , 24/7 facilities etc. In future
technological improvements will positively impact online advertising as
broadband access penetrates more regions. Internet search will become more
and more intelligent and location-aware. Mobile device usage will become
more extensive with media-rich and powerful applications and the
personalization of online consumer interaction with which businesses will
widen and deepen their reach.

1.7 Differences between Online Advertising and Traditional Advertising

Following Yogesh Sharma, Director & CEO at Mamsys (Digital Marketing

Firm, India) in traditional marketing types of marketing techniques are
included like broadcast advertising, billboard, paper coupons and flyers
among others. Whereas, due to development of technology and the presence
of the internet has brought in several online digital marketing techniques
which is also called online advertising that helps a business increase its
revenue most. The digital world has given businesses an opportunity to
engage with the customers from worldwide and that too in a cost-effective
manner. However, there are major differences between the traditional
advertising and online advertising which are discussed below (Narayan, 2018:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-traditional-
marketing-and-digital-marketing):-

a. Traditional, marketing still has a wide reach and a strong branding effect
without an internet connection. Digital marketing, on the other hand, can
only reach people with an internet connection.

82
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

b. In Traditional marketing, your message may not hit the desired target
market. While in digital marketing, you can easily hit the target market spot
on because of analytical data available.

c. The ads in Traditional marketing are unchangeable, but in Digital

marketing, the ads can be revised, optimized and implemented with new
data available via analytics.

d. Tracking and analytics are possibly unavailable to understand if you‟ve

achieved your goal or not. Digital marketing will provide you with exact
data via analytics making it easy for the campaigns to be redesigned and
re-implemented.

e. A large investment must reach a target audience. While in Digital

marketing little or no investment must reach your target audience.

f. In traditional Marketing, the message is pushed to the audience. Digital

marketing, on the other hand, attracts the audience as they search for your
product or services.

1.8 Conclusion

Thus from the above discussion it has been seen that how advertisement was
originated and how time to time it has been developed. From the Relics of
Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro to the invention of printing press, radio, and then TV,
the form of advertising has developed with the changes of time and
technology. And due to advent of technology internet came in front of the
world and has changed the whole scenario of advertising media and it gave a
new media in the market which is called online advertising. Today in India
along with the traditional advertising online advertising has truly revolutionized
and influence the market scenario. Due to interactive nature of online

83
Chapter – 1 History of Advertising and Its Development

advertising it becomes more popular than the traditional advertising and now
people instead of going traditional advertising using online advertising for their
product promotion. This new media has opened new doors for marketers to
communicate their target audience easily.

84