Sunday, 10 February 2013

ADVERTISING - THE BIG BANG



Pepsi or coco cola, everyone has a choice, but have we ever looked into why we are actually drawn towards a particular brand. It’s a secret but not that big a one that might pop eyelids out. The basic idea to CONNECT with the customers in the most personal in your face way so that they catch your attention and bury the product so within our subconscious that at the first mention of washing powder we say “SURF”.

Advertising has been around for a long time, from word of mouth and sign walkers from the mid 19th century to TV, Radio, Internet advertising of the 21st century. The ratio of products in the markets to actual products preferred in a market is neck to neck and therefore success of a product is highly defined by its market segmentation, and market share, and to key in both essential aspects of  a business ,advertising has become the make or break component. Offers about products, announcements, launches can all be easily communicated through any advertising scheme, but since advertising schemes are public they tend to become monotonous and  so arises the age old saying “kuch hatke” to create such a big bang that the product being advertised has maximum exposure in turn creating maximum interest that can turn into sales.

One such new avenue of advertising being explored is human billboard advertising , popularized by the amateur boxer Billy gibby aka billy the billboard. His main aim at first was to be a boxer and earn money and have his share of fame but things for a boxer are never pretty or perfect and in his desperate need to pay off certain bills he started donating blood and even a kidney, this took a toll on him he knew he needed to find another way, and one day it struck him, in one of his  boxing matches billy noticed that his opponent had a tattoo on his back advertising a certain website,  billy the billboard decided  to approach the company and offered them a permanent tattoo on his back. The idea sold, and in no time, billy was strapping on his boots and getting into the nearest tattoo parlour to get on a new brand name to advertise to help him raise the extra buck .

It sounds painful, but it was unique and a win- win situation for both parties an extremely rare case for businesses to find. Now billy earns 20000$ for an advertisement at maximum.

Billy is only the start, young advertisers looking to pull out innovative products look into innovative ways to advertise them, group image advertising where a group of people create logos, theme parks recreational places showcasing the product logo, product itself etc are being explored.

Products due to technological advancements and globalisation are produced on par with competitors and to sell products advertisements are being seen as final frontiers. Therefore the saying throwing a stone in the water made my mother look but banging the stone on the glass table made everyone look. 
Muzayna Naqeeb (edited by Madeeha)

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