A brief history of advertising

According to the most conservative calculations, the advertising market is over 5,000 years old: "ancient traders made connections with their customers by means of direct verbal appeals. Sales places were announced by the loud and repetitive shouting of salespeople. The concept therefore derives from the Latin reclame, 'to shout again'.

But the world is changing, and so are the means of communicating with consumers/users: what worked yesterday (TV, banner advertising, etc.) is now considered obsolete. New formats are emerging that are both more interesting and more useful to both businesses and consumers. In order to appreciate these innovations, it is worth briefly evaluating the entire evolution of this market.

The first format of advertising is oral: the same shouts, heralds of all kinds, and so on. Almost at the same time, a written form was born: advertisements for the sale of goods, later signs, etc. A separate kind of advertising is through actions: the founder of the Lipton brand drove huge circles of pressed tea round the streets and thus attracted the attention of passers-by.

Of course, the Cambrian explosion of advertising occurred in the 20th century, with the birth of all kinds, methods and techniques, from neon lights to TV commercials and LED screens. The next big jump came in the 21st century, after the dot-com boom, when Google, Facebook and other social networking and search engines introduced highly accurate targeting in all formats and forms.

Today, however, the advertising market is in rebirth mode. There are several reasons for this.