Advertising


'Word of mouth' from satisfied customers is often the best form of advertising - and the least costly. But for a more formal advertising strategy, you need a more consistent and long-term plan. For example, the advertising media you choose needs to be consistent with how you think your customers will find out about your business.

Typical advertising media include:
Yellow Pages
Merchandising (such as point of sale, leaflets, packaging, shelf displays and window displays)
Local newspapers/radio/TV
National press and TV
Posters and leaflets
Trade journals
Websites
Exhibitions and trade shows

The Advertising Standards Authority
Good reference point for UK standards and codes of advertising practice.

Advertising Association
A range of information about advertising.

Outdoor Advertising Association
This site has useful facts and data about outdoor advertising, which is a fast growing sector of media advertising. There is a diagram of the buying chain, cost indicators for campaigns and information on audience research.

Trade Fairs & Exhibitions UK
Listing of all the consumer, public, industrial & trade exhibitions to be held in major venues in the UK.

Adbrands.net
A leading reference source for the worldwide advertising industry. The majority of information is only available on subscription, but you can find very basic summaries.

Iconocast
Reports on trends in business, marketing & advertising.

Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC)
ABC audits the circulation of over 3400 magazines and newspapers. The information is freely available on the Web site and is of particular interest to advertising agencies and advertisers.

National Readership Survey
NRS is a data-gathering service for British newspapers and magazines. You can obtain statistics on about 300 publications, plus key marketing information. Basic information is open to anyone but fuller information can only be viewed by subscribing to NRS.

Internet Advertising Bureau
The IAB is a good place to start looking for Internet Advertising Information. This international non-profit making organisation provides latest news on net advertising revenues and trends, some case studies, and a comprehensive list of links. The IAB UK site doesn't have as much information on it, although there is some information on internet advertising terms and standard sizes for banner ads.

Internet Advertising Resource Guide
This guide from Admedia is comprehensive list of links to advertising resources and tools.

Jupiter
Jupiter, an online research agency has some sample reports and research available on internet advertising for free. However, as you would expect, most of their full reports are expensive to buy.