Advertising has been a central part of businesses for as long as we can remember. Advertising for those who don’t know is a strategy brands use to promote their business. But did you know that advertising began before the Gutenberg printing press was invented? Yes, that’s right, the pre-modern history of advertising or, better yet, the ancient history of advertising began with wall paintings and hawkers trying to sell in various parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, and South America.

Overview

The advertising landscape has drastically changed since the olden times. First, with the advent of Gutenberg’s printing press, which gave rise to brochures in the 15th century and newspapers and magazines in the 16th and 17th centuries. Then, with the advent of radios and television to the digital age we are living in now. Advertising has truly come a long way, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is its purpose, which is to grab attention. At first, advertising was used to grab attention and sell, but now, it is much more than just selling products or services. It is about growing your business and making it a recognizable entity. In short, the most basic purpose of advertising now is to build brands, not businesses. 

We now live in a highly digitalized world where getting to your target audience is easier than ever. However, the difficult part is to grab their attention. But with the right amount of creativity and audience insights, that too is possible. 

Now, let’s look at the brief history of advertising from where it supposedly began to where it has come. By the end, you’ll know what advertising should really be used for in this modern age. So, get your Sherlock hats on and read on to know everything you need to know about the history of advertising.

The Ancient Form of Advertising

The ancient or the pre-modern advertising was all about gaining attention to sell stuff. Pre-modern means before the printing press. Here are some ways our elders utilized advertising at their time.

Origin of Wall Paintings

Wall and rock paintings were a popular way to display messages in ancient Egypt and Rome. Signs of commercial advertising, such as political campaigns and messages, were found displayed in the ruins of Arabia and Pompeii. Hapu, a fabric merchant, is often credited with being the creator of the very first noted advertising. He released a papyrus offering reward for the capture and return of an escaped slave, “Shem.” However, wall paintings were found in a completely different region of the world “India.” The Indian rock art paintings have been said to have started in 4000 BCE.

Use of Trademarks

When we hear the term “branding,” it is hard to imagine potters in ancient Greece and Rome. Trademarks are a huge part of branding as we know it today; surprisingly, craftsmen in ancient civilizations also used trademarks such as their signatures, thumbprints, or other signs such as the sun or the moon to differentiate their craft from others. That is also the reason why weapons from medieval times, especially swords, have their makers’ mark on them. It was a form of branding (advertising), whether knowingly or unknowingly; our ancestors were building brands.

Pottery made in India, pottery jars from ancient Greece and Rome, and Chinese porcelain have brand marks on them dating back as far back as 1300 BCE. 

Hawkers or Town Criers

Hawkers and town criers were also used as a form of advertising to make announcements in places where most people were illiterate and could not read. This was widely popular in asia and can bee seen in some markets throughout asia, specifically south asia.

Signboards

Signboards were also a popular phenomenon; shopkeepers used to hand sign boards in front of their shops. But the signboards didn’t have any writing on them. Instead, they displayed images that represented their trade. Sign boards were used in ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, and China.

The Gutenberg Printing Press

Gutenberg printing press, in the year 1454, revolutionized the advertising landscape and laid the foundations for paid ads. With the advent and commercial use of the printing press, the mass production of brochures and flyers became possible for everyone. This was the beginning of print advertising as we know it today.

Magazines and Newspapers

The printing press also led to the widespread use of newspapers and magazines, then weekly magazines and gazettes. This concept quickly rose to fame, beginning from Venice, Italy, to Germany, Holland, Britain, and other regions during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was in 1704 that the very first newspaper ad was published.

This gave businesses the opportunity to reach audiences that were not possible before. Increasing their reach and influence. 

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution directly led to the increase in demand for advertising in the US. The need arose to market products to the masses. Hence, mass advertising/marketing was formed. Now, advertising was not merely being used to sell products. It was being used to influence people’s purchasing decisions. This marked the shift in advertising from a pure selling perspective to a behavioral enhancement practice. Mass marketing became so popular that the total advertising budget rose to almost $3 billion in the 1920s from $200 million in the 1880s.

This was also when psychology became a vital part of the advertising industry.

Radio Advertising

If you think about it, radio shows were a type of podcast for their time. Just like some podcasts are sponsored and promote the services and products of their sponsors by talking about them in discussions. Radio show hosts used to do the same for people advertising through their shows. 

The Billboards

We are nearing 2025, and fake out-of-home advertising has become the trend. And exactly a century ago, in 1925, out-of-home advertising (billboards) was the trend. Is it just a coincidence or something more than that? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

World War & Advertising

By the 1930s, when the First World War started, the art of advertising had been exploited for much more than just commercial purposes. Ads were being used to connect with the audience emotionally, mostly to get them to volunteer for the war to defend their homeland. Now, advertising has become a form of shaping ideologies. It was used mainly by world leaders to mobilize their people under one cause.  

TV Advertisements and The Involvement of Psychology

The world’s very first TV advertisement was aired in July of 1941. This led to the era of video advertisements on TV. By the 1960s, psychologists also entered the dynamic world of advertising. This can also be said to be the golden age of advertising, as professional advertisers or experts began to base their advertising on psychological data and allocated big budgets for that. 

Although basic psychology, such as showing proactive content and images to cater to male audiences, was already being used in the advertising industry. It was during this time that proper psychological data-backed ads started to come to life.

Learn about the significant milestones in the history of advertising with SeattleAdvertising.

The Beginning of Digital Advertising

In the early 80s and late 70s, the Internet became available to the government, businesses, educational institutes, and defense industries. This marked the beginning of Digital Advertising. Can you guess what was the first form of digital advertising? Let me tell you, it was email marketing. Since the internet was only available for large-scale commercial use in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I can only imagine that the type of email marketing being done at that time would have been B2B. Surprisingly, the very first email marketing blast sent to 400 people led to $13 million in sales.

Here are a few milestones in the Digital Advertising industry that have led to it being what it is today.

The World Wide Web

It is thanks to the World Wide Web that we have all the information we need just a click away. The credit for helping brands reach audiences anywhere in the world also goes to the World Wide Web, as it gave us search engines that transformed the world into a global village, literally. 

Web 2.0 and Social Media

Web 2.0 was a significant point in the history of digital advertising as it gave us social media platforms. Facebook was invented in 2004 and became a global phenomenon. Social media gave rise to new ways businesses could reach their target audiences anywhere in the world. We would say the inception of social media was as big of an event in the history of advertising as the inception of Gutenberg’s printing press. It completely changed the digital advertising landscape.

Brands and businesses could now use tools like Google Adsense and Keyword Planner to better understand their users’ behavior and gain insights that were not possible before. Web 2.0 also gave us YouTube, which popularized online video advertising.

AI, AR, VR, and Web 3.0

Now, we live in a day and age that is so digitized that it is becoming hard for businesses to keep up. Artificial intelligence, AR, and VR are all gifts from Web 3.0. And this is not the end of digital advertising. It is only continuously going to advance further and further. 

In The End

If you want your business to be a brand and stand above the competition, then you need professionals who understand the modern requirements and unique needs of the businesses. Get in touch with us now, and our professionals will take care of your digital advertising needs.