Mass Communication & Journalism

FUNCTIONS OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES Today advertising agencies are found in virtually every major city on the world and their role in stimulating economic growth is solidly established. To understand advertising, we need to examine the functions of an Ad Agency. These are: - Talent & Creative productions: The basic function of an Ad Agency is providing talent. The creative efforts of the art director, the detailed analysis of the research director and the political understanding of the campaign director, are just a few examples of the many abilities of Ad Agency personal have to offer. A business organization or person will contract the services of an ad agency to help market a product. This function involves processing the information collected from the client and through research and designing communication material in the form of advertisements and other publicity material. This also includes planning creative strategies, copy or script writing, visualization, designing, layout, s

WHY HIRE AN ADVERTISING AGENCY? Expertise and experience- An advertising agency brings together people with the required expertise and experience of the various sub-disciplines of advertising. Thus, it has the copywriters, visualizes, researchers, photographers, directors, planners and people who get business and deal with clients working in ad agencies. An agency moulds all these people into a team and gives them a highly conducive work atmosphere. The agency makes the best use of their talents and experience to deliver rapidly, efficiently and in greater depth than a company or organization could do on its own. Objectivity and professionalism- Advertising agencies are highly professional. Objectivity is a major virtue of ad agency. They operate in a strange way. While they take up advertising for others, agencies hardly advertise themselves. Ad agencies being outside intermediaries can be objective. They thus will offer independent and detached viewpoints and suggestions based on obj

WHAT IS ADVERTISING AGENCY? An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce an advertising campaign. The major role as advertising agency is to work alongside the clients to develop and sustain the brands that they mutually serve, through consumer understanding and insight and through creative and media delivery skills to provide best advice and the best execution thereof to those clients for the advertising of those brands. “Buildings age and become dilapidated. Machines w

Advertising agencies are outside companies that provide for the marketing and advertising needs of other businesses and organizations. Advertising agencies offer a full range of advertising services and advice based on market studies, popular culture and advanced sales techniques. Because they are independent from the client company, they can be objective about a client's promotional needs. An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. SELECTION OF MEDIA AGENCY Before proceeding with selecting a media agency, it is useful to be aware of what services media agencies offer in today’s market. Over the past years,

Advertising is a function of marketing and it works in the market for bigger sales of the product. When a firm or institution decides to launch an advertising campaign or programme, it needs to have a system and an organization to implement it for the achievement of the desired objectives. Therefore large firms and institutions have an advertising department to manage the advertising function. In small firms, there may not be a separate department of advertising but the function of advertising is looked after by a responsible person or chief executive of the firm. The advertising department usually depends on outside experts, often the advertising agency which prepares the advertisements, selects appropriate media and arranges to release them. This department is responsible for the advertisement budget and supervises the performance of the agency. An advertising manager has to coordinate with the marketing and sales function so that the advertising efforts may be fully integrated with

ELEMENTS OF DIFFUSION PROCESS Four elements are required for diffusion process of an advertising message: ü      An innovation, which is an idea or a product or a service that is perceived new. ü      Its communication from one individual to another ü      Its penetration from one individual to another ü      Its use over a period of time CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INNOVATION The characteristics of an innovation vary from one product to another, and tend to vary between geographic area and culture. These characteristics are summarized as: Relative Advantage: This refers to the superiority of the innovation over existing offers. Compatibility: Innovation has compatibility if it fits with the values and life-style of the prospects. Complexity: It means the degree of difficulty that consumers experience in understanding how it works and in using it. Divisibility: It is the extent to which the innovation may be used on a limited basis. Several forces often work against innovation. One is risk,

DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION The diffusion of innovation refers to the tendency of new products, practices, or ideas to spread among people. Usually, when new products or ideas come about, they are only adopted by a small group of people initially; later, many innovations spread to other people. The bell shaped curve frequently illustrates the rate of adoption of a new product. Cumulative adoptions are reflected by the S-shaped curve. The saturation point is the maximum proportion of consumers likely to adopt a product. In the case of refrigerators in the U.S., the saturation level is nearly one hundred percent of households; it well below that for video games that, even when spread out to a large part of the population, will be of interest to far from everyone. Several specific product categories have case histories that illustrate important issues in adoption. ATM cards spread relatively quickly. Since the cards were used in public, others who did not yet hold the cards could see how conv

When a national advertiser plans an advertising campaign, he must keep in his mind the different requirements of the campaign which are as follows:- v      Analyzing the market v      Determining advertising objectives v      Establishing the budgetary an control systems v      Developing advertising strategy   PLANNING AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN The first step in preparing an advertising campaign is to target the right market and select the media which offers access to that market. The next step is to create and place foundation advertising which announces to the greatest number of people that your product exists and what place it occupies in the market. Is it the biggest?, the best?, the least expensive? This becomes the product's positioning statement and your selling proposition. It is vital to your ultimate success to reach the greatest number of people in the shortest period of time during your foundation advertising. You will probably want to use full page ads and lots of color

There is no universally agreed history of public relations. But most of the historians are of the view that man has been using various public relations skills and techniques, since the time he formed social groups, for moulding and influencing public opinion. Archaeological findings of old civilizations in Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) substantiate this view and show that those nations have been using some of the techniques for public opinion formation which even today constitute an integral part of the public relationing. A 4000 years old cunciform tablet found in Iraq The history of public relations is mostly confined to the early half of the twentieth century however there is evidence of the practices scattered through history. One notable practitioner was Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire whose efforts on behalf of Charles James Fox in the 18th century included press relations, lobbying and, with her friends, celebrity campaigning. A number of American precursors

Public Relations is usually confused with advertising, press agentry, propaganda, publicity, public affairs, etc., but these are some of the tools used by the all absorbing discipline of public relations for achieving its objectives. Public relations can be classified into various types, such as:- Governmental/Official PR Financial/Industrial/Commercial PR Political PR International PR Official PR:               Public Relations is considered to be an essential components for the smooth functioning of any government, state agency or department. Although official PR departments are considered to be non political and non partisan, the parties in power in some third world countries, often try to use these for achieving/furthering their  own political ends. The basic duties/functions of a PR set-up of a government include: To keep the citizens informed of the government policies, achievements welfare programmes and projects To interpret the rules, procedures, laws and the new enactments i

ETHICS Ethics, also known as moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc. LAWS Law is a system of rules and guidelines, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. VARIOUS LAWS AND ETHICS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IPRA CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT:         Following code of conduct was adopted by the International Public Relations association at its general assembly in Venice, May 1961 and is binding on all members of the Association. Personal and professional Integrity Conduct Towards Clients and Employers Conduct Towards the Public and the Media Conduct Towards Colleagues Personal and professional Integrity:          It is understood that by personal integrity is meant the maintenance of both high moral standards and a sound reputation. By pro

  PRESS RELEASE A press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks. Commercial press release distribution services are also used. HANDOUT A handout is something given freely or distributed gratis (without compensation). It can refer to materials handed out for presentation purposes or to a charitable gift, among other things. According to John Hoheberg, author of the book “The Professional Journalist” handout is a contemptuous name bestowed by newspapers long ago on the public relations news release. PRESS NOTE A press note is neither a news story, nor a press release, nor a handout which leave the sub-editor at liberty to publish it or the otherwise. It is an acco