Advertising media are outlets or advertising vehicles such as newspapers and magazines, radio, television, cinema, posters, hoardings, internet, etc., by which promotional messages are communicated to the public using words, speech and pictures. The basic purpose of using the media is to bring products and services to the notice of potential customers. With the advances in communication technology, the numbers of media outlets are growing in advertising. The advertising media differs in connection with geographical coverage, the type of customers that medium can reach, nature of appeal to customers, cost involved, etc.
Some of the advertising media available to an advertiser are discussed below:-
- Television Advertising: – It is one of the most expensive forms of advertising, but it reaches a very wide audience in a very short period of time. It makes an appeal through both eyes and ears. With the help of this advertising, the products or services can be easily demonstrated as well as explained. It allows business enterprise to actually demonstrate the benefits of ownership. Here, an enterprise can show how its product or service works and how it is packaged, so that prospective customers will know what to look for at the point of sale. These are also called as television commercial or ad, as they last for 10 to 60 seconds and provide wide awareness about product or service.
- Radio Advertising: – The radio advertising is also called as the “Word of mouth advertising” on a wholesale scale. It is the cheapest, quickest and most pervasive of all media of mass communication. The advertising messages can be broadcast to masses in different regional languages. It has a wide coverage, as it can easily convey message even to illiterate people and through this media message can be reached to small remote areas too.
- Newspapers: – Newspapers are the most effective and powerful medium of advertising and are one of the important forms of press advertising. They may be referred to as ‘a store house of information’, as they are read largely for their news value. They have widest circulation and have universal appeal, as they reach at every nook and corner. The newspapers may be local, provincial or national. They offer lots of flexibility. According to the convenience and necessity of advertiser, the shape and size of advertisements could be changed.
- Magazines: – Magazines or journals are also one of the important medium of advertisement, which are directed towards a particular class of people. They may be released weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual. These are read with more interest by the readers as compared to newspapers. Advertisements given in magazines are more descriptive and attractive. They are usually in coloured form which depicts the product nicely and gives lasting impression to the reader. The life of the magazine is longer because they are preserved for a long time period and can be read again and again. Magazine advertisements are costlier than the newspaper advertisements since their circulation is small.
- Direct Mail Advertising: – Direct mail consists of leaflets, booklets, brochures, catalogs, postcards, flyers or letters that are mailed directly to prospective customers and also maintains secrecy in advertising. The direct mail contain information regarding detailed description and prices of different varieties of products. The purpose of the direct mail is to create the reader’s interest in the product. The letter should be attractive, interesting and convincing. The greatest advantage of this method is its capacity to create and maintain personal contact. For this purpose, the advertiser has to maintain a mailing list and the mailing list can be expanded or contacted by adding or removing names from the list.
- Film Advertising (or cinema advertising): – The film advertising is an audio-visual medium of communication and offers wide opportunities to the advertiser to screen commercial films and slides. It provides sight and hearing facilities like television. Film advertisement is very effective since it combines spoken words and visual presentation of pictures. It also helps in selective advertisement. A business man can advertise his product only in a particular locality if he wants to attract the local customers only. It is a very costly medium involving higher distribution and film making costs.
- Outdoor Advertising (or out-of-home advertising) : – This type of advertising include different media like posters, placards, electric displays or neon signs, sandwich men, sky writing, etc. This is also known as ‘Mural advertising’. The main aim of outdoor advertising is to catch the attention of people on their way to go on public places. Posters and placards are usually fixed on the walls near the road sides, railway stations, busy markets and bus stands, etc., and are also pasted on the back of buses, trains and trams which are greatly helpful in carrying the message throughout and outside the city. Painted displays are prepared by expert painters which carry attractive multi-coloured pictures also to impress the people. Electrical display involves the use of electrical lights or neon tubes to attract the attention of people particularly during night. Usually, a short message is illuminated in tubes of different colours so that it is conspicuous and attractive. Electrical displays are fixed at heavy traffic centres.
- Window Display (or shop window): – It is a common method which is usually undertaken by retailers who display their products in the shop windows in order to attract the customers. This is also known as exterior display. It is the most effective and direct method of influencing the people. Window display has direct appeal to the onlookers. It is instrumental in bringing up the desire to purchase in the prospective customers. It acts as a silent salesman. In order to run this method effectively, goods should be arranged properly and systematically in the show windows. The articles in the windows should be regularly- changed. The advertiser should not forget that the window is the index of his shop. Utmost care should be undertaken to display the products in windows.
- Speciality advertising: With the aim of increasing sales, most of the business houses advertise their products by giving free gifts like diaries, purses, paper weights, pen holders, desk trays, cigarette case, calendars, etc., to the customers. The name and address of the advertiser is inscribed on the articles presented. They also bear the brand name of the firm. As these articles are of daily use, they have greater capacity to remind their users about the brand name of the firm offering such articles.
- Internet advertising (or online marketing or web-advertising): – It is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), social media marketing, web banner advertising, mobile advertising, etc. Nowadays, internet advertising is becoming more and more important. Especially young people spend less time watching TV and more time on the Internet. The Internet has the advantage of being available to people around the world at all times.
