However, the plane of the print advertising also leads to some weaknesses of print advertising. As newspapers and magazines can be only read, audiences can only receive visual information only and also made the advertisement lack of flexibility. Therefore, the strengths of print advertising can be concluded as multiple readers, big discounts, longevity, quality reproduction, high information content, thoroughly segmented while the weaknesses of print advertising can be considered as visual only and lack of flexibility. The most revenue for the advertising industry is produced by the advertising media of print, however, TV advertising can be considered as the”flagship” medium. (MacRury, 2009, p: 91) Nowadays, almost every family have at least one TV. In addition, most people spend some time on TV every day. Thus, the mass coverage and high reach can be considered as two strengths of TV advertising. Compare with print, another advantage of TV is it has sounds effect and also the moving images that can gather more audiences’ attentions. Moreover, compare with words and images, sound, sight and motion can make the TV advertisements have higher prestige. However, compare with print, TV advertising also some disadvantages. Low selectivity can be considered as one of those disadvantages. In addition, as TV advertisements usually can last for no more than one minute, it can only pass limited information to the audiences. Both of the production costs and the total costs of the TV advertisements are also much higher than those advertisements in print advertising although the costs of exposures are low. Clutters from TV can be considered as another problem of TV advertising. Therefore, the TV advertising’s strengths can be concluded as mass coverage, high reach, attention gathering, sound, sight and motion effects, high prestige and low cost per exposure while the weaknesses of TV advertising can be considered as low selectivity, short message, high total cost and production cost and Clutter. “The one-dimensional nature of radio (it only has sound) and the lack, until recently, of powerful national commercial broadcasters, consigned radio to a position as an unglamorous media option.” argued by MacRury (2009, p: 101) in his book Advertising. Radio advertising has some similar strengths with print advertising. They both have low cost and their readers or audiences are both well-segmented. The print advertising has the advantage of quality reproduction while the radio advertising has the strength of high frequency as both of them have low costs. In addition, as most of the radio stations usually cover one area, radio advertising also has the strengths of local coverage and usually placing a short period of time. Nevertheless, the weaknesses of radio advertising is very significant, it is audio only, all the information audiences received is based on their imagination as they can not see the images directly. It usually get lower attentions from the audiences as people usually doing something else while they listening to the radio. The information people can get from the radio is also very limited as they advertisement on the radio usually can not last for too long. Similar with TV advertising, radio advertising can also cause some clutter problems. Therefore, the strengths of radio advertising can be concluded as local coverage, low cost, high frequency, well-segmented loyal audience and short placing time while the weaknesses of radio advertising can be concluded as it only have audio, low getting attention, fleeting messages and clutter issues. Adverts are a sideshow in the films which customers pay to watch. (MacRury, 2009, p: 103) Cinema advertising is another one of those five main advertising media, although compare with the other four, it does not attract a great numbers of advertisers. The way to pass the information to the audiences is very similar with the TV advertising. Compare with TV, it may does not have a number of audiences; however, it can be much more impressive and captivating on the big screen. (MacRury, 2009, p: 103) In addition, some of the advertisement might have problems with age limited or other issues to show on the TV, cinema advertising has more liberty to display all kinds of advertisements. Therefore, cinema advertising has most of the strengths and weaknesses of TV advertising. Compare with TV advertising, it has fewer advertisers and audiences while the cinema advertising can impress the audiences more and have more liberty for different kinds of advertisements. Outdoor advertising is almost everywhere around us, mostly in traffic congestion spots and other poplar open public places. Thus, outdoor advertising is more flexible than other advertising. Local advertisers can only advertise their advertisement in a specific location. Geographic flexibility and demographic flexibility is very significant in the outdoor advertising. By choosing the specific location of the advertisement, it may help the advertisers to attract more possible buyers to notice the advertisement. Moreover, when people walk by, it is very easy for them to notice these advertisements and as most of the outdoor advertising is in the public places where there are huge number of people pass by every day, the information is continuous flow and can not be avoided. Nevertheless, there are some negative points of outdoor advertising. As the outdoor advertisement can only stay in one place, it has local restrictions. In addition, when people walked by, they might notice these advertisements, but they will not stay and reading the advertisement for a long time like they read newspaper or magazines. Hence, it has a very short exposure time and fleeting message. Some of the outdoor advertisements also cause visual pollution. Therefore, the strengths of outdoor advertising can be concluded as the specific locations, easily to be noticed, unavoidable, continuous flow of information geographic and demographic flexibility while the weaknesses of outdoor advertising can be concluded as it only can has a short exposure time with fleeting message, has local restrictions and may cause some visual pollutions.
Secondly, this essay is going to explain the special advertising of Internet advertising. According to the advertisement theory, most of the advertisements can be divided into above the line which and below the line. If the process of getting the advertisement out is managed by an advertising agency or a nominated media buying company, this expenditure of the advertiser which on promotional messages placed in paid for media outlets has been classified as “above the line” expenditure and can be defined as “advertising” strictly. (MacRury, 2009, p: 78) Everything else is classified as “below the line”, no matter however much it resembles advertising, in style or in intention. (MacRury, 2009, p: 103) As Internet advertising can emerge in both of the situations of “below the line” and “above the line”. It can be considered as “through the line” as it is in the middle of “above the line” and “below the line”. As audiences who surfing the internet usually searching for information which is valuable for them. Thus, internet advertising must exist with that information. This can be considered as another feature and also a difference between other advertising media. Another feature of internet advertising is its bidirectional. Audiences who search the internet can choose to click on some advertisements or not. However, some adverting agencies use some technology to force the audiences see some advertisements although they did not click and want to see them. These advertisements might be considered as by the audiences, but the adverting agencies reached their aims of advertise their advertisement. Therefore, internet advertising differs from other advertising media as it is “through the line”, must exist with some valuable information for the audiences and its bidirectional.
In conclusion, the five main advertising media all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Internet advertising differs from the others as it has its own features which discussed in the second part of this essay.
Bibliography:
Books:
MacRury, I. (2009) Advertising. Abingdon: Routledge