The "Predictions" Post: guerilla marketing

Advertisements have always been focused on an image; from propaganda posters to todays extravagant commercials, the goal of an advertisement is to capture the audiences attention through the image displayed. Over the years, advertising has become more and more about the ways images are being manipulated, and less about the image itself.

This article “The Evolution of Advertising: From Stone Carving to the Old Spice Guy” gives a great visual timeline of the advertising industry and when new ad strategies were implemented.

Advertising is currently one of the most expensive departments within a company, and I believe that the cost and effectiveness of advertising is going to continue to increase. While the effectiveness of an advertisement will increase, I think it will also become more and more difficult to produce advertisements that genuinely get the attention the audience, and that have a call to action that customers will actually act upon.

To ensure that a customer is engaged in an advertisement, I think ads will need to become more drastic in order to create a shock factor for the audience. There will continue to be more integration with graphic design elements and edited images. If I were an account manager in the advertisement industry, I would focus a lot of my efforts and dollars on guerilla advertising. I think it is important to catch your audience off guard a little bit, because it would create a lasting impression, and evoke conversation about the advertisement to other people they know, therefore increasing the reach of the ad. I would also work to create a commercial that includes the reactions to the guerilla advertisement, and some kind of “what will we do next” slogan.

The following are some examples of what I think we will continue to see more of, and what I would implement.