Now becoming a multi-billion dollar market, advertising has become a part of every business. The ability to communicate to your target market and persuade them to fulfil some sort of action has been around the human race for centuries. Well, actually since 
2000BC! Doesn’t this define how important advertising be it online or offline is for a business? If people thought it was necessary to advertiser more than 4,000 years ago, we should too! Here is a take down of all the numerous moments where there have been inventions or progression in advertising, right back to the start…
- 2000BC – The first ever advertising was made by Egyptians where they would carve notices onto steel for the public to see. This was the invention of outdoor advertising but more importantly, advertising in general.
- 1500 – Around this time, the first every printed advert was created to publicise a handheld pray book.
- 1750 – Near the time of the American Revolution, there were political adverts much like propaganda encouraging the public to enlist.
- 1850 – Due to the increase in popularity of the car, more billboard adverts were being displayed to advertise cars and their makers. As well as this, the first product placement was created from transport and shipping companies getting mentioned in the novel, ‘Around The World in 80 Days’ by Jules Verne.
- 1880 – The first ever electronically lit advertising sign appeared in New York’s Time Square.
- 1900 – This is when direct marketing is created with Sears sending out 8,000 handwritten (I know!) postcards. Amazingly, from the 8,000 postcards, he received 2,000 orders! At that rate, I think anyone will write out that many postcards!
- 1910 – Celebrity endorsement was created when Fatty Arbuckle (a silent movie) stated that Murad cigarettes were the preferred choice of cigarettes of men with cultivated taste.
- 1920 – The first advertising company was founded called The American Association of Advertising Agencies.
- 1930 – ‘Nice to have’ products were getting heavily advertised during this time.
- 1940 – Advertising is introduced to war where the majority of advertising is now propaganda.
- 1940 – The first ever TV commercial aired on America’s TVs before a baseball game at a cost of $9. A 20 second clip cost $9 which we all know was worth a lot more back in them days than it obviously is now.
- 1950 – Following the first TV commercial, the first ever political TV commercial airs promoting Government Dewey of New York.
- 1960 – Psychologists are introduced to advertising to find better ways of luring the American public.
- 1960 – This is the birth of the longest running TV ad commercial jingle, Mr Clean, of which is still running today!
- 1970 – Informerical is invented selling houses in San Diego.
- 1980 – The TV channel, MTV launches advertising many music artists 24/7.
- 1980 – The most expensive TV commercial appears at the Super Bowl by Apple, costing Apple $900,000!
- 1990 – Pay per click keyword advertising is created at GoTom.com. However, this wasn’t successful and got mocked a lot.
- 1990 – The first ever keyword was created by Yahoo. The keyword was ‘Golf’.
- 2000 – The first ever mobile advert launches. With SMS alerts, adverts are displayed at the bottom of the SMS messages.
- 2000 – Dotcom appears making $8.2 billion become invested in online advertising. The most expensive ad campaign appears and was purchased by Pepsi. It cost $7.53 million and saw a 90 second clip of Britney Spears for the commercial.
- 2000 – Google releases AdWords, a pay per click program that now results as about 95% of all of Google’s revenue.
- 2000 – Pop up ads appear being 13% of all online advertisment. They work bringing 13 times more clicks than traditional adverts.
- 2005+ – YouTube becomes viral and introduces the in-video and pre-roll adverts. Both Twitter and Facebook go on to introduce advertising to their social networks too.
- 2008 – In-text advertising is invented with Infolinks.
- 2010 – Viral advertising is a lot more successful than normal types of adverts with the ‘Old Spice Guy’ receiving 30 million views. This was by far the most successful advert of the year.
It’s so interesting!
