History of Advertising 101: What You Need to Know

Advertising allows brands to communicate with potential customers.

From the steel carvings made by Egyptians to the modern digital era, advertising has come a long way in engaging buyers. Advertising helps companies collect important customer data points and allows them to effectively target their audience. 

Modern advertisers use software to help them connect with potential customers across digital channels. Cross-channel advertising software helps companies manage campaigns across multiple channels, while demand-side platforms allow them to bid for ad placements in real time. The capabilities of software today help advertisers be more efficient and effective in their jobs.

A brief history of advertising

Take a look at advertisements from the past and present. You’ll notice that ads are the same, but their forms are different. Sellers in ancient times verbally advertised their products in the market. Later, they found carved signs and flags worked better. Consumers welcomed carved signs and sales increased.

The first-ever written ad was a Papyrus created in 3000 BC by a slaveholder in Egypt. It was found in the ruins of Thebes in Egypt. It was the result of a slaveholder trying to find a runaway slave while also promoting their weaving shop. 

Today, we see different types of advertising, such as print, display, and digital. Let’s take a look at how advertising methods have changed over time.

The beginning (1700s to 1900)

In the pre-digital age, outdoor and print ads were the only ways for companies to communicate with their customers. It all started with a word of mouth advertising until brands eventually began using strategies that could last forever. 

The first newspaper advertisement was published in 1704 in the United States. Then in the early 1800s, billboards came into existence and brands began to leverage them to express their value propositions. 

Direct advertising, which involves directly reaching out to potential customers, was considered an expensive option before the internet. Many organizations preferred indirect advertising because it was more affordable. Indirect advertising dealt with promoting a product or service in a subtle way, without sounding too sales-y.  For example, big signs and posters in front of a shop are considered indirect advertising. 

Sears was the first company to focus more on direct advertising when they launched their first direct mail campaign in 1892. The company posted more than eight thousand postcards that generated two thousand new orders. This encouraged other organizations to allocate more advertising budgets.

The golden age (1900s to 2000)

Advertising took a whole new turn when radio stations and television came into play, and by the beginning of the 20th century, more than 30% of the world's population used them. At this time, ads started to feel more personalized, as communication was now directly between the customer and brand. 

Radio advertising was launched in 1922 and was a big hit, allowing businesses to convey their unique selling propositions (USP) directly to consumers. Advertisers started paying radio stations to broadcast advertisements to their listening audience. 

Radio ads were then followed by TV advertising, with the first television commercial airing in 1941. Bulova Watch Company aired the first TV commercial, which was ten seconds long and seen by 4,000 people in New York. 

This sparked the Golden Age of Advertising, where organizations invested heavily in advertisements to express their brand's uniqueness and engage their target audience.

In the 1950s, brands started introducing characters just for advertisements to resonate with their audience. For example, Kellogg's introduced cartoon mascot Tony the Tiger to promote Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal. Many brands started focusing more on increasing their brand awareness with advertising instead of being strictly focused on sales.

Even with the widespread popularity of TV and radio, advertisers still leveraged offline advertising with newspapers and billboards.  And then came the internet, which offered even more ways to execute advertising strategies.

Online advertising (2000 - present)

The internet has taken hold of our lives since the early 2000s. The use of the internet became more widespread and brands saw this as an opportunity. Advertisers began focusing more on digital ads instead of traditional offline channels. 

The first online display ad was created in 1994 when advertisers created a banner ad to drive customers to website landing pages. Although brands faced numerous challenges initially, the launch of web services provider Yahoo paved an easier path for all the advertisers. 

Yahoo pioneered the pay-per-click ads model to attract advertisers. Pay-per-click ads helped advertisers effectively invest their budget because they only pay when viewers clicked on the ad. Yahoo also introduced keyword-based ads during this time to attract more people who used search engines. Keywords are words or phrases that people use to search for answers to their queries.

As the internet became more accessible from mobile devices, different ad formats were introduced. Advertisers started creating mobile advertisements to capture viewers’ attention on the devices they love.

Mobile advertising (2008 - present)

The first mobile ad was introduced to consumers in early 2000. Mobile ads are advertisements of a unique shape, size, and format exclusively tailored for mobile devices. These ads reached out to customers via short message service (SMS) and redirected them to the brand's website. This encouraged brands to come up with strategies that supported mobile marketing. 

Since 3G came into existence, advertisers have focused more on in-application ads. 3G allowed people to access the internet wirelessly through their mobile phones and other electronic devices. Advertisers started creating more personalized ads for their viewers, rather than generalized campaigns. Personalization helped brands engage their customers better. It also inspired them to focus on their customer service and provide a delightful customer experience.

As early as the 1970s, email advertising showed its potential by reaching millions of users worldwide. Through emails, brands conveyed their message internationally and started engaging a global audience. 

In 2000, Google developed Google AdWords (now Google Ads) which allows businesses to target ads based on Google search history and user browsing preferences. Google added search ads to further engage audiences at the right place with appropriate content types. Advertising motivated many businesses to discover new markets with promising returns. 

Facebook penetrated the ad market with more than 2.2 billion users in 2008. Social media marketing came into existence, motivating other social destinations like Orkut and Twitter to adopt and adapt. 

Mobile phones, TVs, newspapers, and social media have become a part of everyone's lives, as the world turns more toward the instruments of the digital era. In 2020, Facebook introduced Facebook Shops, inspiring applications like Spotify, Picsart, and Saavn to create ad platforms that promote other brands. 

Google acquired YouTube in 2006, introducing video ads to businesses. Now YouTube has one of the highest viewer rates. In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram and in 2013, Instagram ads were launched. 

Today, ads are everywhere, ranging from over the top (OTT) platforms such as Hotstar to mobile games like Subway Surfer. Brands are constantly trying to reach their audience on multiple platforms to engage with them. Ironically, some platforms like YouTube introduced their premium version, allowing users to browse videos ad-free.

7 people who changed the history of advertising

Below are some of the people who changed the way advertising is done – forever.

Johannes Gutenberg: the printing press

Before the printing press, there was block printing, which involved carving a character into a woodblock. After one use, it was trash.

The gift that Johannes Gutenberg left behind is priceless: the printing press. The printing press is a mechanical device that transfers ink to different surfaces, making it easy to duplicate texts. Invented around 1440, the printing press allowed people to spread knowledge around their community faster than ever before. Before this invention, advertising was mostly a word-of-mouth industry.

Gutenberg's invention paved the way for any printed materials we use in business and advertising today: magazines, business cards, billboards, and posters. Who knows where mass-media publishing would be today if it weren’t for Gutenberg?

Benjamin Franklin: magazine and design

Benjamin Franklin published the first magazine that contained an advertisement in 1741: The General Magazine.

Advertising hardly existed before, which gave Franklin more room to innovate. The copy he wrote for local retailers was excellent and the experimentation with the redesign of the Pennsylvania Gazette, including illustrations, typography adjustments, and white space, was revolutionary.

Phineas Taylor Barnum: fake news

Phineas Taylor Barnum, known professionally as P.T. Barnum, was a clown even before he founded the Barnum & Bailey Circus. In the 1840s, Barnum showed the advertising world what the tricks up his sleeve could do to change the industry – but not necessarily for the better.

Before the circus, Barnum owned a museum where he used to display human oddities. One of his most famous gags was the sign in his museum that read "This Way to the Egress". Those who did not know what the word "egress" meant followed the sign curiously, expecting to see something exotic, only to walk toward the exit. They then had to pay a second admission fee to re-enter.

Clever yet misleading, Barnum demonstrated for the first time the effect of the English language on us when used appropriately in advertising. Deception and exaggeration became alarmingly prevalent in advertising, and it still shows today.

F. Wayland Ayer: the ad agency

In 1869, at the age of 21, F. Wayland Ayer used his entire savings of $250 to found N.W. Ayer & Son. Although this was not the first advertising agency to exist, it was the first to dramatically change how advertising agencies function.

Before N.W. Ayer & Son, the primary role of ad agencies was to buy space in newspapers and magazines for as little money as possible, and then resell the space to advertisers for a profit. Ayer did this too, but he took a couple of extra steps by overseeing the planning, design, and copy for advertisers, much like advertising agencies do today.

Ayer also developed the "open contract" in 1875, which guaranteed that his clients would get the lowest possible rates, while the agency would make its money with a 15% commission.

The 15% commission is still standard today.

Helen Lansdowne Resor: the first ad using sex appeal

Helen Lansdowne Resor was an advertising executive with J. Walter Thompson Co. and is considered the greatest copywriter of her generation. Resor was the first woman to successfully plan and write ad campaigns that were released across the nation and the world, rather than just locally.

Most notably to some, her Woodbury Soap campaign in 1910, "A Skin You Love to Touch" is often referenced as the first advertisement to use sex appeal. J. Walter Thompson Co. acquired the Woodbury soap account in 1910 and by 1921, the company was selling 20 times more of its product.

Shocking back then, we were almost desensitized to advertisements that use sex to sell a product. Nowadays, sex advertisements are practically all we see.

William Bernbach: the original mad man

William Bernbach changed advertising by breaking the rules and writing his own. For example, instead of the extended copy that every other advertiser was using, Bernbach believed that copywriting should be as short as possible to make the messages memorable and clear.

In an interview, he credited his enormous success to his lack of education around advertising: "I think I...had the advantage of not knowing too much about advertising, and therefore I could be fresher and more original about it. As soon as you become a slave to the rules, you're doing what everybody else does; when you do what everybody else does, you don't stand out."

David Ogilvy: the father of modern advertising

Known as the father of advertising, David Ogilvy founded the agency Ogilvy & Mather in 1948 on the idea that the singular objective of advertising was to sell. Ogilvy's enormous success came from learning from past innovators and adding his touch to make his ideas genuinely unique.

Ogilvy & Mather, now Ogilvy, is an international success and even became the first foreign advertising agency to access the Soviet Union. Ogilvy wrote many advertising books, several of which are now staple texts and used in classrooms, based on his principles.

Let ads add value

Modern buyers come across advertisements more frequently than before. Ads are on roadside billboards, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, TVs, applications – everywhere. 

Businesses should craft their advertisements to add value and help their audience, instead of becoming a barrier to the customer experience. 

Learn more about customer experience and ways businesses can improve it at every interaction with consumers.