Ad creep

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A Valio advertisement on an envelope Valio PSE Russia 2006.jpg
A Valio advertisement on an envelope
A Renault advertisement covers an entire Stagecoach Manchester bus Stagecoach in Manchester allover advert bus.jpg
A Renault advertisement covers an entire Stagecoach Manchester bus

Ad creep is the "creep" of advertising into previously ad-free spaces.

Contents

The earliest verified appearance of the term "ad creep" is in a 1996 article "Creeping Commercials: Ads Worming Way Into TV Scripts" by Steve Johnson for the Chicago Tribune , [1] however it may have been coined by a subscriber to Stay Free! magazine, according to another source. [2]

While the virtues of advertising can be debated, ad-creep often especially refers to advertising which is invasive and coercive, such as ads in schools, doctor's offices and hospitals, restrooms, elevators, on ATMs, on garbage cans, on vehicles, on restaurant menus, and countless other items. In Steve Johnson's piece referenced above, he criticizes product placement and "creative advertising enhancements" as "one more manifestation of an environment in which the commercial assault is almost nonstop". [3] Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization founded by Public Citizen "to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy" also characterizes "ad creep" as an assault, with ad companies fighting a "relentless battle to claim every waking moment, and what one executive called, with chilling candor, mind share". [4] A 2017 Daily Express story in the UK suggests "the creeping incursion of adverts in Windows 10" has been an issue. [5]

On the other hand, modern advertisers are compelled to react to changes in consumer habits. An article in The New York Times notes that "consumers’ viewing and reading habits are so scattershot now that many advertisers say the best way to reach time-pressed consumers is to try to catch their eye at literally every turn." And, the article suggests that ad agencies believe that as long as ads are entertaining, people may not mind the saturation. [6] As people have turned from traditional media, advertisers have not only struggled to create brand awareness, but there is also a move to "microtarget people at precisely timed moments" as well, according to an article in Stay Free! . [7]

Occasionally, the term "ad creep" has been used to describe a process of slowly infusing more ads into places where ads have been expected (television shows, for example) such as in a 2011 Advertising Age article describing the increase in both the time devoted to ads and the number of ad messages in the Super Bowl. [8] This is not a standard use of the term, but it is related. A 2017 blog post by the chief global analyst of Kantar Millward Brown, a marketing firm, notes "that average ad loads on national television in the U.S. continued to creep upwards from 10.4 minutes per hour in December 2014, to 10.9 minutes in December 2016". [9] Although the increase is less than 5%, he suggests "marketers should be concerned because the evidence suggests that more clutter is a bad thing for brands." [10]

Examples

Organisations fighting ad-creep

See also

Related Research Articles

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Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages and qualities of interest to consumers. It is typically used to promote a specific good or service, but there are a wide range of uses, the most common being commercial advertisement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television advertisement</span> Paid commercial segment on television

A television advertisement is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. Advertisers and marketers may refer to television commercials as TVCs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex in advertising</span> Use of sex appeal in advertising

Sex appeal in advertising is a common tactic employed to promote products and services. Research indicates that sexually appealing content, including imagery, is often used to shape or alter the consumer's perception of a brand, even if it is not directly related to the product or service being advertised. This approach, known as "sex sells," has become more prevalent among companies, leading to controversies surrounding the use of sexual campaigns in advertising.

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Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked.

Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. Online advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile advertising. Advertisements are increasingly being delivered via automated software systems operating across multiple websites, media services and platforms, known as programmatic advertising.

Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks on a specific link to the number of times a page, email, or advertisement is shown. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website, as well as the effectiveness of email campaigns.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings and increase the Call to action (CTA) on the website.

Music in advertising refers to music integrated into mass electronic media advertisements to enhance its success. Music in advertising affects the way viewers perceive the brand by different means and on different levels, and "can significantly affect the emotional response to television commercials." It also affects the musicians whose music is featured in advertisements.

In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usually money, in exchange for the station airing their commercial or mentioning them on air. The most common advertisements are "spot commercials", which normally last for no more than one minute, although extended versions, commonly running for up to 45, 60 or more minutes, are termed "informercials" because they delve deeper into detailed information on and stories about commercial product or service offerings.

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) refers to the marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products directly to consumers as patients, as opposed to specifically targeting health professionals. The term is synonymous primarily with the advertising of prescription medicines via mass media platforms—most commonly on television and in magazines, but also via online platforms.

Apple Inc. has had many notable advertisements since the 1980s. The "1984" Super Bowl commercial introduced the original Macintosh mimicking imagery from George Orwell's 1984. The 1990s Think Different campaign linked Apple to famous social figures such as John Lennon and Mahatma Gandhi, while also introducing "Think Different" as a new slogan for the company. Other popular advertising campaigns include the 2000s "iPod People", the 2002 Switch campaign, and most recently the Get a Mac campaign which ran from 2006 to 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fine print</span> Text in a small size

Fine print, small print, or mouseprint is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service. The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is. This may satisfy a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Targeted advertising</span> Form of advertising

Targeted advertising is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)</span> Advertising regulation authority in the United Kingdom

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances. The ASA is not funded by the British government, but by a levy on the advertising industry.

Advertising is a form of selling a product to a certain audience in which communication is intended to persuade an audience to purchase products, ideals or services regardless of whether they want or need them. While advertising can be seen as a way to inform the audience about a certain product or idea it also comes with a cost because the sellers have to find a way to show the seller interest in their product. It is not without social costs. Unsolicited commercial email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent that they are a major nuisance to internet users, as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers. Advertising increasingly invades public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation. Advertising frequently uses psychological pressure on the intended consumer, which may be harmful. As a result of these criticisms, the advertising industry has seen low approval rates in surveys and negative cultural portrayals.

Virtual advertising is the use of digital technology to insert virtual advertising content into a live or pre-recorded television show, often in sports events. This technique is often used to allow broadcasters to overlay existing physical advertising panels with virtual content on the screen when broadcasting the same event in multiple regions; a Spanish football game will be broadcast in Mexico with Mexican advertising images. Similarly, virtual content can be inserted onto empty space within the sports venue such as the field of play, where physical advertising cannot be placed due to regulatory or safety reasons. Virtual advertising content is intended to be photo-realistic, so that the viewer has the impression they are seeing the real in-stadium advertising.

Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, video, article or editorial piece of content. In some cases, it functions like an advertorial. The word native refers to the coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.

Major annual or one-time televised mega-events can draw large viewership and significant interest from regional, national, and international advertisers. Advertisers strategically unveil major marketing campaigns in conjunction with televised mega-events and create memorable advertising content with high entertainment value. Some mega-event advertising, such as during the Super Bowl, even attracts a subset of viewers interested primarily in the advertising content. This type of advertisement is an increasingly common television phenomenon as televised mega-events become more popular and available globally.

An annoyance factor, in advertising and brand management, is a variable used to measure consumers' perception level of annoyance in an ad, then analyzed to help evaluate the ad's effectiveness. The variable can be observed or inferred and is a type that might be used in factor analyses. An annoyance effect is a reference to the impact or result of an annoying stimulus, which can be a strategic aspect of an advertisement intended to help a message stick in the minds of consumers. References to annoyance effects have been referred to as annoyancedynamics. While the words "factor" and "effect", as used in the behavioral sciences, have different meanings, in casual vernacular, they have been used interchangeably as synonymous. A more general or umbrella term would simply be advertising annoyance.

References

  1. McFedries, Paul. "ad creep". Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to New Words. Logophilia Limited. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  2. Lombardi, Tom. "The Creep that Won't Quit". Urbanite Magazine. Retrieved 8 October 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. Johnson, Steve (March 24, 1996). "Creeping Commercials: Ads Worming Way Into Tv Scripts". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  4. "Ad Creep". Commercial Alert. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  5. "Windows 10 is spamming Chrome users EVEN MORE ads". 20 January 2017.
  6. Story, Louise (January 15, 2007). "Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  7. McLaren, Carrie. "Ad Creep - Ambient Advertising". Stay Free Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  8. "Super Bowl Ad Creep Gave Viewers Nearly 48 Minutes of Commercials Last Year". 18 January 2011.
  9. "Home".
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  13. "DDB marking 'virgin thighs' with advertising".
  14. "This Japanese Firm is Advertising Where?!". HuffPost . 13 March 2013.
  15. "Japanese Agency is Paying Girls to Put Ads on Their Thighs". Business Insider .
  16. "Marketplace".