Advertising has become an integral part of our lives. It is difficult to imagine the streets of the city without half-naked girls calling us to visit the gym from billboards, or flyers with cute cats, assuring us to buy some cat food, etc. But advertising has not always been like this. Let's have a flashback to see what approaches were used for advertising goods and services in previous centuries. From the verbal advertising market barkers to the picturesque signs, and then to the print ads — this is the way of advertising development.

The sign was the first form of advertisement to appear. A typical shop sign of the Middle Ages — a boot or a bread hanging on chains above the entrance to the shop. Such pointers were understood by commoners who could not read. The best artists and engravers worked on the creation of advertising signs. Sometimes professional artists were involved to work on them. For instance, in 1720, the owner of an antique shop invited his friend, the already recognized French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau, to design a shopsign for him, which later entered the history of culture as an invaluable work of fine art.

With the advent of printing and lithography, outdoor advertising somewhat slows down its development; comparatively cheap leaflets and posters that were glued to the walls of houses start to compete with signs, and in the 19th century, with the advent of gas, and especially electric lighting, this direction began to flourish rapidly.

For example, in 1849 on the streets of New York, carts pulled by circus elephants appeared, covered with advertising text. The residents were shocked, they laughed but still read the ads that were offered to them by elephants. So no one doubted the effectiveness of such advertising.

Another important event in American advertising in 1872 was the invention of the catalog. The catalog was sent to home addresses and made it possible to purchase goods by mail. Gradually it became clear that a few advertising pages supplied with color reproductions, have a greater effect than black and white printing. Thus, the idea of a new advertising genre — a color booklet — has appeared.

At the beginning of the 20th century in the United States are being placed advertisements on wooden boards, designed for drivers as a target audience. That's how billboards appeared. For many centuries, the main goal of outdoor advertising remains the same — to attract attention. But the means are changing, some are going to the past, others are replacing them and dominating the market.

In the USA, on November 2, 1920, in the city of Pittsburgh, PN, the first sound advertisement went on the air. Almost immediately it was noticed that the effectiveness of advertising exposure depends on the rating of the program, during which it is broadcasted. In the 1930s, radio series or "soap operas" (later television series) were very popular. These are long sentimental stories that were daily broadcast in small parts. They received their name from the first sponsors — manufacturers of detergents. On January 27, 1931, the debut of the program was released, with which the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company promoted its Super Suds soap.

In 1923, an advertisement for Procter and Gamble sounded on the radio in one of the culinary shows. And in 1933, NBC Radio launched the television series, "Ma Perkins". American housewives have immediately fallen in love with it. The show was sponsored by the washing powder "Oxydol" (its advertisement was regularly broadcasted). Its manufacturer was the company "Procter and Gamble". Soon it began to sponsor other series as well. And it is precisely because of this combination of detergent and long radio series the concept of a "soap opera" was coined. Later the "soap operas" moved to the TV screens.

As one of the most significant events in the development of the media of communication, one can view the broadcast of the first television program in 1941. American inventor Philo Farnsworth demonstrated the first television in 1927 and 14 years later, the world saw the first TV commercial.

Television did not become the most popular advertising mean right away. At first, consumers were suspicious of this innovation, predicting a quick death for it (quite similar thing is happening with AR and VR technologies nowadays, comparatively speaking!), since the first televisions and the production of television advertising were quite expensive, and the audience of television programs at that time was not huge at all. By the end of the 1950s, television had become one of the main channels for the dissemination of advertising.

One of the examples of advertising that has seriously affected society is the case of the jewelry company De Beers, which in 1938 has made the diamond ring a prerequisite for engagement. Much of De Beers marketing effort was put into the cinema. The agency coordinated the appearance of movie stars in diamond jewelry on social events. In addition, advertisers used their capabilities and influence to ensure a diamond product placement, even at the stage of writing the script.

For example, in the 1941 film "Skylark", the heroine takes a long time looking at diamonds in a store, and the 1953 movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" Marilyn Monroe declared diamonds to be "girl's best friends". And "Diamonds forever" slogan was used as the name of the seventh part of the "Bondiana".

The end of the twentieth century marked the beginning of the era of digital technologies, which significantly influenced the development of advertising activities, created new opportunities for the creation and placement of advertising texts. One of the most promising advertising locations has become the World Wide Web — the Internet. New technologies contributed to the evolution of outdoor advertising. In addition to traditional posters, huge LED monitors were placed on the streets of large cities.

Consequently, advertising campaigns on the Internet have become available. For example, internet advertising on YouTube. The percentage of the audience watching advertisements on a regular TV is decreasing, and the number of people watching various videos and similar content is rapidly growing, advertising on the world-famous video hosting platform is gaining momentum and popularity. Now setting up an advertising campaign is done through Google Adwords. You can customize how to view ads directly in the video itself, as well as simply on the video platform.

Among one of the most creative and successful advertising campaigns on the Internet is Heineken: #ShareTheSofa. On Twitter and Vine, the brand has launched the #ShareTheSofa campaign, which allowed fans to watch matches in the company of football stars and ask them questions under the #ShareTheSofa tag. As a result, the video counted 1.2 billion broadcasts in 94 countries of the world, which increased the overall sales of beer: the desire to buy the brand's drink has increased by 7%.

Why did it work? Because #ShareTheSofa campaign and its strategy were based on creativity: it was the first real-time football campaign, fully developed for the second screens. The performance was also at the highest level: real football stars took part in the campaign. And everything was closely connected with the brand values and the context of the consumption of its products. This is the perfect recipe for meeting expectations. Social involvement was high and has lead to important business results.

So from all the above we can conclude that nowadays advertising should be unexpected and creative. This will distinguish it from ordinary advertising media: as we can see it is difficult to surprise consumers with advertising on television, radio, ordinary billboards , and even Internet because they've already seen all of this before and now they want something that hasn't become boring yet.

It's difficult for brands to stand out among competitors and reach out the target audience. Social media, print advertising, and Internet marketing must be developed to remain relevant to them. That is why marketers are pinning their hopes on augmented and virtual reality technologies to reach the audience. As practice shows, the innovative and novice approaches are always remembered. This is not only the law of human psychology but also the key to the success of revolutionary businesses. And augmented reality is a powerful tool in the modern marketing and advertising market!

The possibilities of augmented reality to work with customers are almost endless. Using the principles of online marketing in the real world, augmented reality expands the understanding of advertising. International brands can use it to display their products on any surfaces and even people.

Now the next line of transition from textual/visual 2D to 3D-visual thinking is taking place. And due to this transition, AR/VR technologies are gradually developing.

The transition is necessary because of the continuous increase in information flow. Due to the abundance of information, we are almost unable to consume it at the level of text content. The trend of the last five years is video. It allows you to receive the information more concise for the same period of time. Now for many people, the simultaneous consumption of content from two monitors and a phone screen has become the norm.

The human brain was able to adapt to the modern flow. But this is not enough. We are like an information sponge that can absorb and process an incredible amount of information. In the near future, we will think in terms of 3D space criteria and use it fully, and not only through information windows (screens of monitors and mobile phones).

The basis of 3D thinking is the perception of the world as an information monitor with the ability to interact with the information you need at any point. This is the main trend of the present, in which all the IT giants are investing. And one of the points of information generation is the technology of augmented reality.

According to Business Insider, AR helps to support and expand business operations. Businesses are able to provide better customer service and training. If the client does not know how to troubleshoot, the technician is be able to demonstrate the process by superimposing instructions through AR in real life. AR allows brands to more personally interact with their customers and this helps to create closeness with the brand and for this reason to increase its loyalty.

AR will help your clients to explore the world around us in new ways and will be an excellent aspect for users to explore a particular brand or location. It is rather a personal way of research. The more options of such research you provide to your clients, the more they will be involved in the process of building and deve loping your business.

Marketers are always quickly catching on new technologies and starting to implement them in advertising. Virtual and augmented realities are new forms of marketing, the advantage of which is a more advanced and involved audience. Augmented reality will be good in any industry, whereas virtual reality can provide a full-fledged sensory experience. Both types of immersion marketing can lead to the emergence of a new type of perception of advertising in general. Other forms of marketing will have to get used to having an audience that awaits interactive advertising approaches, keeping its attention and, ultimately, promoting sales.

If you are ready to turn you concept into a marketable AR product, we invite you to partner with us. We bring innovative solutions to companies around the world, and we specialize in AR technology. Our world-class developers are experts in AR platforms, mobile app development, and in creating feature-rich solutions that are also scalable and robust.

Why not contact us today for a no-cost consultation?