It all started with the radio

Broadcasting was originally developed as a means for companies to sell radios. But once commercial entities realized that many households listened to their radios for a significant amount of time every day, they began to explore this medium as a way to get their message across to the masses. If one had to choose a single event that started the broadcasting era, it would probably be the radio show broadcast by the WEAF station in New York City on August 28, 1922. This was a ten minute advertisement for homes of suburban apartments. By Christmas of that year, several New York department stores joined the fray and ran advertisements for their stores.

By the late 1920s, radio advertising had advanced dramatically. It was now dominated by ad agencies that took control of schedules by buying available airtime and selling it to their clients. They also handled the creative aspects of commercials and shows and in fact even created entire series that were designed to sell one product or another. These efforts paved the way for the genesis of television advertising that would begin in a few more decades.

The era of the sole sponsor

Full-time television broadcasting didn’t really take hold until 1948, as it took so long for the United States to recover from the Depression and World War II. At that time, the number of televisions reached the critical mass necessary to be considered a medium that could reach the masses. As television was a totally new phenomenon, meaning that it offered both sound and moving images, the advertising industry moved into this field cautiously, as they were not sure which methods would work best to promote their products. clients on television. In other words, should it be treated as radio advertising but with images or should a completely new approach be taken to reach television audiences in a meaningful and effective way?

After a study and many surveys, advertising agencies determined that the most effective way to reach consumers with a strong message would be to create programs that feature a single product or a product line from a single company. From this concept arose the typical television shows of the 1950s, including titles such as Kraft Television Theater, Colgate Comedy Hour and Coke Time. As with radio, these television programs were produced by advertising agencies for their clients and not by studios, as is common practice today.

This practice worked very well for clients for a while. But as television became more popular and more people were watching, television networks increased the costs of doing business (i.e., more eyes = more dollars spent to reach everyone) and this upward pressure on the cost of delivering a production. on television (plus the increasing costs of creating new content) forced a massive change in the relationship of all parties: advertising agencies, clients / sponsors and television networks. A solution had to be found to keep this powerful advertising medium profitable for sponsors.

Enter the age of concept magazine advertising

NBC executive Sylvester L. “Pat” Weaver came up with a solution that would work and be very network friendly too. He introduced the “magazine concept” of television advertising. In this arrangement, sponsors would buy blocks of time (usually one to two minutes) into a program rather than being a sponsor of an entire program. This idea would allow a variety of sponsors (up to four was the imagined number) for a show. Like a magazine, networks would now control content since no advertiser would “own” a particular show.

Like all new ideas, Masison Avenue originally resisted this one, but after a little experimentation, they found that this method would work very well for a variety of packaged goods companies that make a large number of brands, such as Procter and Gamble with Products as diverse as Tide (laundry detergent), Crest (toothpaste) and Jif (peanut butter).

In 1960, the magazine concept dominated television advertising, as it has ever since. Rather than relying on audience identification with a specific show, sponsors now spread their messages throughout the programming in an effort to reach as many consumers as possible. The ability to distribute their ad money to reach a wider segment of the population proved to be very effective for the backers. Where before they were locked into a specific block of time every day or every week on a particular network, they could now choose the times and networks where they wanted their message to be seen.

This evolution of the concept of magazine advertising is really the birth of the most modern television advertising. The only exception is the infomercial, which is actually a throwback to the sponsored show model used in the early days of television advertising.