100 Years of Brand Communications- A Detailed History

To say advertising has changed over the last 100 years is an understatement. Not only have the tools of the trade been completely redeveloped, but the objectives, styles, and content of today’s brand communications have come so far they would be virtually unrecognizable to someone in the business back in 1915.

Word of Mouth Advertising

Did you know that the first telephones were sold in pairs? When Alexander Graham Bell released his invention in 1876, buyers had to purchase two – one for each end of the conversation. Then, the buyer had to bring out a contractor to lay the line between the two telephones. If you wanted to talk to someone else, you had to buy another pair of telephones, and have your contractor come out again to lay an additional line.

In 1894, the switchboard was invented, finally making the use of telephones more practical for the mainstream. Still, it would take 50 years for Bell’s invention to reach half of the U.S. population, and 80 years until nearly everyone had access to a telephone.[1]

The telephone was one of the first modern tools – second only to the telegraph – that significantly extended our ability to connect with others. With the advent of the telephone, households could communicate with each other more quickly and directly than ever before.

Very slowly, barriers to information would begin to crumble. With the telephone, consumers were given the ability to connect with each other in real time without the delay of written letters or the challenges of geographic isolation (which was very significant for early 20th century America’s predominantly agrarian/rural society).

One ring at a time, the telephone was cracking open the door to unmonitored and uncontrolled consumer-to-consumer interaction. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While the telephone opened up some level of transparency and consumer awareness, it was no Yelp. Advertising content – you know, the slick, downright dishonest magazine ads you think of when you hear the words “advertising content” – was just getting started…

1920s: Editorial & Advertorial

The “Roaring ‘20s” ushered in the first age of consumerism. As annual earnings increased and the traditional workweek scaled back from six to five days a week, the American middle-class found themselves with more money and more time.

Advertisers were more than happy to help them spend it – primarily by playing into fears and insecurities:

“Most men ask ‘Is she pretty?’ not ‘Is she clever?’” (Palmolive)

“How’s your breath today? If it’s bad, you won’t be welcome.” (Listerine)

“Wash away fat and years of age.” (La-Mar Reducing Soap)

This early age of advertising did an excellent job of casting visions of grandeur for consumers. (And also making them feel ashamed if they didn’t buy the product.) Advertising became less about the product’s features and more about developing a hungry consumer mindset. As Blackford and Kerr write in Business Enterprise in American History, “Before 1910, advertisers mostly sought to inform customers about products; after 1910, the main goal was to create a desire to purchase products.”[2]

As scientific breakthroughs began to boom in the early part of the 20th century, many companies were quick to introduce new products full of promise to the marketplace. The changing face of the workweek and new expendable income only bolstered consumerism and the rise of the advertising industry.

“In 1919 advertising costs were 8 percent of total distribution costs in industry; by 1929, the share was 14 percent [nearly $3 billion],” write Blackford and Kerr.[3]

America was starting to change.

1920s-1930s: The Content/Ad Space Loop

During the 1920s (and then especially in the 1930s), radio established itself as one of the premier spaces for advertisers. At first, radio was the hobbyist’s plaything. With the development of the Radiola by American Marconi (later known as RCA), radio entered into the mainstream. Still, the media didn’t bear any resemblance to “radio” as we consider it. Early 1920s radio broadcasting was fully in the hands of amateur enthusiasts, who would borrow phonographs from friends or the nearby music store and spin them on air.

Soon, the novelty wore off; listeners wanted more. They longed for a more diverse music library; different voices; new types of information. But where would broadcasters find the funds?

Advertisers.

As AdAge Encyclopedia notes, “Commercial radio broadcasting found its foothold as a form of entertainment in the U.S. through a combination of factors, including economic depression, the influence of corporations, urbanization, electrification and the recognition of production, consumption and distribution.”[4]

While the adoption of radio happened relatively fast (1 in 500 households owned a receiver in 1921, and 1 in 6 households by 1926), the financial strategy moved more slowly for broadcasters. By 1927, only one in five radio programs had sponsors.[5]

Enter Big Tobacco and Big Agencies.

At the close of the 1920s, Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfield were battling it out on the radios, spending millions in advertising dollars. Agencies like L&T, JWT, Young & Rubicam, and BBDO were created to sell radio space.

More advertising dollars allowed for more content. More content meant more listeners. And more listeners meant more advertising.

A cycle was born.

1940s-1970s: Mass Broadcasting

There was just one problem. Everyone was a part of the cycle. Advertisers were using mass marketing tools like print, radio, and television to speak to a mass audience. There was no distinction between demographic markets.

Remember Women-Who-Wear-Sneakers-and-Care-About-Social-Justice? Advertisers had not yet arrived at that niche mentality. Instead of creating stories that speak to a small, committed, ready-to-buy audience, advertisers were speaking to the masses. So, naturally, their stories had to have mass appeal.

But mass appeal isn’t always attractive. People are different. There’s no such thing as a “mass” person.

Mass marketing inevitably misses the mark with individuals, and its scattershot approach is expensive. Remember, this mass-broadcasting era predates the use of Big Data (for narrowing demographics) and personal devices/internet (for precision marketing). Advertisers were doing the best they could with what they had to start telling stories.

While many advertisements in this era continued to employ shame, guilt, and societal pressure to drive the consumerist mindset, there are many examples of advertisements from mid-20th century America that begin to tell a story.

Bob Levenson’s “Snow Plow” ad for Volkswagen[6] is one of many such Volkswagen examples. “Have you ever wondered how the man who drives the snow plow drives to the snow plow?” asks the TV commercial’s earnest narrator. “This one drives a Volkswagen,” announces the voiceover, while showing the dark, frigid plight of the driver rumbling through piles of snow.

Other classic Levenson/Volkswagen ads include “Think Small” and “Lemon,” two iconic ads featuring the VW Beetle. Concerning the Lemon ad, which pairs a picture of the vehicle with the headline “Lemon.” and three small columns of copy, Levenson had this to say:

“It was a pretty audacious thing for a car company to call its own car a lemon. It’s still audacious to run a picture of your product with a headline suggesting something is wrong with it. But it was such an arresting combination, and when you read the ad, you found out the car was a lemon because it had a scratch on the glove compartment and was rejected just because of that. The last line was, ‘We pluck the lemons, and you get the plums.’ ”[7]

Volkswagen told a story.

It’s no wonder that American ad exec Jerry Della Femina says, “In the beginning, there was Volkswagen. That was the day when the new advertising agency was really born.”[8]

With ad agencies like DDB (for whom Levenson wrote the Volkswagen ads), advertising took a few long strides into a totally new frontier. The environment was still characterized by “mass-to-mass” communication, but story and art had begun to emerge.

1980s-2000s: Ad-As-Product, Storytelling & Targeted Messaging

Video killed the radio star… and MTV presided over the entire funeral by introducing a new way of perceiving the relationship between product, advertisement, and seller. In the past, advertisers sponsored content. On MTV, which launched in 1981, the advertisement was the content. Even more remarkable, MTV found a way to get consumers to willingly tune into the content.

Viewers tuned in to watch their favorite bands and artists, which resulted in their exposure to more bands and artists. The music industry – which was not producing many music videos at this time – saw an opportunity for promotion, and quickly began creating more music videos, which would air on MTV, thereby increasing the value of the channel for both viewers and content producers.

The value of the video isn’t limited to those in the music industry. Product placement quickly became a monetization strategy for many consumer goods. From cars to alcohol, brand names of all types began cropping up in the music videos that MTV aired to millions around the world. (By 2009, product placement in music videos had become a $3.6 billion industry.[9]) Everything from Miracle Whip to Mini Coopers had a supporting role in music videos.

The advertising-as-product model has dramatically shifted how today’s businesses think about advertising. As marketing guru Seth Godin has written, “The secret of big-time advertising during the 1960s and ’70s was the “big idea.” In A Big Life in Advertising, ad legend Mary Wells Lawrence writes, “‘... our goal was to have big, breakthrough ideas, not just to do good advertising. I wanted to create miracles.’ A big idea could build a brand, a career, or an entire agency.”[10]

This is the old way: the way that doesn’t necessarily work post-MTV. As Godin suggests, “Today, the advertiser’s big idea doesn’t travel very well. Instead, the idea must be embedded into the experience of the product itself. Once again, what we used to think of as advertising or marketing is pushed deeper into the organization. Let the brilliant ad guys hang out with your R&D team and watch what happens.”

Today’s products don’t necessarily sell themselves. (If you have one that does, then you’ve hit a homerun.) Today’s successful products are embedded with a story that speaks to a niche audience. It was during this era that Nike told the world to “Just Do It” (1988). Apple asked us to “Think different” (1997). These brands created an identity that consumers wanted to be associated with. They didn’t tell us to join them. Rather, they showed us a better way of being ourselves. To meet our potential, all we had to do was buy a pair of Nike running shoes or an Apple computer.

The story that Nike embedded into its advertisements – through words, photos, video, and sponsorships – was one worth grabbing onto. Nike told us to work hard, to have dreams and goals, to push ourselves on to greater heights – even when no one else around us was willing to join. Nike told us that we mattered and that we could become anything we wanted to be. All we had to was get out there and train. Run faster. Jump higher. Be the best. Anyone can do it; it just takes work – work that most people aren’t willing to put in. But you? You’re different, said Nike. Just do it.

A story like Nike’s holds incredible persuasive power. You only have to see one good Nike commercial or magazine ad to understand their story. They don’t have to tell you to buy their product, because you’ve already imagined yourself into the commercial. Take, for example, Nike’s 2012 ‘Greatness’ TV spot[11], featuring a single long take of an overweight teenager running on a rural road:

“Greatness,” says the voiceover. “It’s just something we made up. Somehow we’ve come to believe that greatness is a gift reserved for a chosen few. For prodigies. For superstars. And the rest of us can only stand by watching. You can forget that. Greatness is not some rare DNA strand. It’s not some precious thing. Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We’re all capable of it. All of us.”

Now that’s a powerful story.

It was during the 1980s-2000s era that targeted messaging (also: “permission marketing” and – similar – “content marketing”) began its rise to prominence. Mass messages for mass audiences began to fail. (Even Nike, after all, isn’t speaking to everybody.) To quote Seth Godin again, “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.”[12]

Slowly but surely, the idea of tailoring very specific messages for very specific audiences – audiences who want to hear what you have to say – began to gain traction. The internet cracked open a world of small tribes and niche markets, who could now connect with one another outside of time and space constraints.

Advertisers had a host of new data capabilities and tools to reach these niche markets. But some of the most impressive feats in brand communications were still to come. The stagnant brand-to-consumer flow of conversation was soon to be upended and extended, consumer-to-consumer. Brands would no longer be the sole gatekeepers of information; nor would they be the only salespeople for their product. The consumer’s power was about to be made manifest in the Age of Influence.

2000s-Present: The Age of Influence

Prior to the internet, consumers were fairly limited in their options for evaluating a product or company. You could call up your local Better Business Bureau, pick up a copy of Consumer Reports, or phone a friend. Otherwise, product/service information came your way via the salesperson.

The internet changed all of that. Brand communications were no longer top-down. With the web, the exchange of information became a peer-to-peer process (to employ a Dot-com Bubble-era term). Consumer-oriented websites, forums, review aggregators, bloggers, and online product demos developed across all industries. If you wanted to really know how good a product was… all you had to do was ask. Chances are, someone had already tried it, and shared their experience.

In 2004, Yelp (the now-famous online review platform) launched with $1 million in the bank. Ten years later, the site is valued at $5 billion and receives 130 million unique visitors per month.[13] Likewise, new products have lived and died at the hands of Amazon customers, whose reviews hold far more influence than any product description the manufacturer could hope to write.

In the Age of Influence, it’s the customer’s voice – not the brand’s – that carries the most weight.

But the real power of the consumer came with the rise of social media. There’s no better product endorsement than a friend or family member’s social media post. According to a survey[14] that included 24,000 social media-connected consumers…

·      88 percent of respondents said that they would trust a friend or family member who received a free product in exchange for a review.

·      78 percent would trust a blogger who received a free product for a review.

·      “Trust” in product recommendations has increased year-to-year on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.

·      In 2014, more consumers used Facebook, blogs, Pinterest, and Instagram to discover new brands and services than they did a “brand-owned community” (i.e. that brand’s social account).

I call our current era of brand communications “The Age of Influence.” Brands no longer hold the same authority that they did in the Mass Broadcasting/Mad Men era. Today, the power is totally in the consumer’s hands. This is why so many brands invest in user-generated content, influencer marketing, and hashtag-fueled campaigns that only work when passionate fans are engaged in the conversation.

Without the fans, the campaigns flop. And without authenticity, there are no fans.

The smart brands know they don’t hold yesterday’s power.

The smarter brands extract the power of user-generated content.

The smartest brands equip users with tools for creating content.

In the Age of Influence, brands no longer control what is said about them or how they are perceived. No amount of budget or creativity can cover up the truth.

In the Age of Influence, story is everything. Sure, “storytelling” is a buzzword in today’s marketing culture, but it’s a buzzword for a reason: it works. Today’s great brands are great storytellers. They know how to weave a narrative that’s true and authentic to whom they are. Their narrative is a part of everything that they do.

Arguably one of the most authentic means of storytelling in The Age of Influence is “influencer marketing.” Forbes contributor Kyle Wong defines influence marketing as, “a form of marketing that identifies and targets individuals with influence over potential buyers.”[15]

In essence, influencer marketing is sort of like the old-fashioned “celebrity endorsement.” It’s no new concept – not by any means – but it does push the envelope a little further. David Ogilvy, one of the Mad Men-era advertising greats, once wrote, “[Testimonials by celebrities] are below average in their ability to change brand preference. Viewers guess the celebrity has been bought, and they are right. Viewers have a way of remembering the celebrity while forgetting the product.”[16]

As our culture has only been increasingly bombarded by advertisements, I would argue that disinterest in celebrity testimonials is even greater than it was in Ogilvy’s day…

…which is where influencer marketing comes in. “Influencers,” in this sense, may or may not be celebrities. More often than not, they are people who hold significant sway with a small group of people: teenaged YouTube heartthrobs, mommy bloggers, tech journalists, and indie filmmakers. They’re “mini-celebrities” in their own right, which – in the ad business – offers a lot more ROI than a LeBron James or Leonardo DiCaprio.

Influencers offer immense value because they already have the audience. Typically, their audience has been built through an authentic portrayal of themselves, a strong cause/message, and a keen understanding of their audience’s heart. When an influencer “markets” a product (which may be as casual as posting a photo of them using the product), audiences respond much more favorably than they would to a plainly obvious “celebrity endorsement.”

According to a 2015 study of influence marketing[17], 92 percent of consumers trust recommendations from other people (even someone they don’t know) over branded content.

In another study[18] (referenced earlier), researchers found that 83 percent of respondents said that personal stories made a review or recommendation influential. The “number of reviews” and “number of comments on the post” mattered relatively little by comparison.

My point is not that you should have everyone else do your marketing for you. Rather, I want you to see the shift in thinking that’s occurred over the last 100 years, and know…

We Have A Reason to Celebrate.

Gradually, we have seen brand communications transition from an industry that blanketed a mass audience with guilt and fear (coercing the sale) to an industry that’s focused on enriching the lives of very specific people through beautiful stories and engaging ideas.

That’s something to celebrate.

We have more tools at our disposal for telling stories and enriching people now than ever before. How do we bend ourselves to this perspective? How do we do it effectively? And why? We’ll explore all of these questions in the next few pages…

[1] https://lunarmobiscuit.com/selling-the-first-telephone/

[2] https://faculty.atu.edu/cbrucker/Engl5383/Marketing.htm

[3] ibid

[4] https://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/history-1920s/98699/

[5] ibid

[6] https://youtu.be/ABcckOTVqao

[7] https://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-07-12/features/8702210177_1_tv-ad-cigarette-ads-sara-lee

[8] https://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/ad-age-advertising-century-top-100-campaigns/140918/

[9] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=0

[10] https://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/12/big-ideas-meatb.html

[11] https://youtu.be/2JnYcuRW_qo

[12] https://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-mark.html

[13] https://www.eater.com/2014/8/5/6177213/yelp-turns-10-from-startup-to-online-review-dominance

[14] https://buzzplant.com/new-science-behind-trust-recommendations-social-media-infographic/

[15] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylewong/2014/09/10/the-explosive-growth-of-influencer-marketing-and-what-it-means-for-you/

[16] https://www.profitadvisors.com/ogilvy.shtml

[17] https://buzzplant.com/is-influencer-marketing-the-next-golden-ticket-infographic/

[18] https://buzzplant.com/new-science-behind-trust-recommendations-social-media-infographic/

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