How many new ads have you seen lately?

I used to be fascinated by the term ‘advertising’. My parents ran an advertising agency when I was in school and I was very much a part of supporting the business because it allowed me to learn how to use variosus desktop publishing software (anyone remembers QuarkExpress or Adobe Pagemaker?). We were into publishing newspaper advertisements for government orgs in India- it used to be a thing back in the 90s and early 2000s to publish notices in the newspapers. I don’t know how it is nowadays, it has been a long time since I touched a newspaper.

Anyways, my point here is to understand how advertisements effect us and how marketing effects what we do. Recently I came across a section of people (in my homeowners community Whatsapp group) who dislike marketing of any sorts in a group meant for discussing anything related to the homeowners and the community they are building. On the other hand, there are a majority who didn’t mind there were advertisements in the group. It was interesting to note that those who wanted to market might be the people who wanted to sell their products to others. So, one motivation for advertising is to make money.

But, is this the only motivation people have when they want to advertise? Obviosuly not. There are many who want to test the waters, they want to find out how well their product is liked by others, or how it is received by an audience. There is a “likeability motivation” in advertising which may purely arise out of curiosity to know what others think. These are people who are the same as digital content creators. They post online frequently and with fervor because they enjoy the engagement that results from their publication (whether it is a video post or a product in the market). The likeability motivation is something that can be considered as a way for peple to reach new audiences they wouldn’t have access to otherwise. A whatsapp group is a powerful channel in today’s age to market your material.

Another motivation people who want to advertise have is the emotions that are associated with a business. A seller might have implemented an idea that was close to their heart as they were navigating life with their experiences and they are now able to get the bandwidth to make it a reality. A lot of emotion goes into such products and when they are advertised, it gives them a sense of achievement and relief that their product is being discussed by people. Initially they were afraid to sell because of a lot of unnecessary thoughts (who will buy it, will it even make any money, what will people think about me, where would I sell it, can I do this alone, do I have time to do this, how much should I spend to get this even started etc etc.) holding them down.

Once they get their first sale, they get motivated to try and experiment different recipes. So, advertising is also a way to convey an emotion.

What are some good advertisements that made you feel emotional lately? Share them as a comment.

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