Advertising, as we know it, probably started to prosper in 1904 when John E. Kennedy gave the world that definition: Advertising is Salesmanship-in-Print. A definition that has not been bettered since and many have tried.
But modern day advertising started a few years earlier than Kennedy when Richard Sears produced the very first mail order catalog (around 1892). This catalog contained hundreds of pages of articles for sale and each with their own sales copy. And Sears Roebuck is still going strong today, in marketing and sales.
Around this time, advertising agencies sprang up everywhere. And the people they employed and trained, left us with such treasures that all top marketers today display in their resource libraries and use to their advantage.
Shortly after Kennedy arrived on the scene, Claude Hopkins came along. He left us with a legacy we should all thank him for. He pioneered market testing, sampling, vouchers, and a whole lot more.
At the turn of the last century there were many others: Walter Dill Scott, Maxwell Sackheim, Haldeman Julius, John Caples, to name just four.
Then around the middle of the century such geniuses as Elmer Wheeler, Robert Collier and other contemporaries appeared.
Post war, advertising greats David Ogilvy, Joe Karbo, and Gary Halbert also made their mark.
And living legends Jay Abraham, John Carlton, Dan Kennedy, and Ted Nicholas, have all made many millions both for themselves and their clients.
Towards the end of the last century, the greatest marketing tool of all time was unleashed on the world – the Internet. Early pioneer of the Internet, Ken McCarthy, is still around and his “System” seminars are an absolute must attend.
The Internet has opened a whole new world for advertising and marketing. And a new breed of entrepreneur has been born. Guys like the late, great Corey Rudl, Marlon Sanders, Robert Imbriale, Yanik Silver, Jim Edwards and many others have shown what can be done and in such a short space of time.
But one thing all these “gurus” have in common is that they have studied the markets. They have studied the psychology of what makes people buy. They have learned these principles from the great masters of the past the John Kennedy’s, the Claude Hopkins, the Walter Dill Scott’s, the Elmer Wheeler’s.
And that’s what my articles are all about.
You will be taken from the very beginnings of advertising and get an insight into the writings, the ideas and the philosophies of most of the greatest marketers that ever lived.
For sure, you will recognise much of the material that is mentioned as we take the “tour” but it’s doubtful that you will have come across all of it.
All top marketers recommend that you continually add to your education and you will not do better than picking up any (or all) of the material that you will be exposed to on your “tour.”
Each manuscript mentioned in this “tour” is a desirable addition for your resource library.
Pick them up, maybe one at a time. And you will profit from them just like all the great masters have done past and present.
This article is a brief history of events leading up to the appearance of John E. Kennedy in 1904.
But it also highlights a few milestones in advertising.
1704 The first newspaper ad appeared. It was in a Boston Newsletter and sought a buyer for an estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
1729 Benjamin Franklin starts to publish the Pennsylvania Gazette in Philadelphia which included ads.
1742 America’s first magazine ads published by Benjamin Franklin in General Magazine.
1784 America’s first successful daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, starts in Philadelphia.
1833 Benjamin Day publishes the first successful “penny” newspaper, The Sun. Circulation reached 30,000 by 1837 which made it the largest in the world.
1843 Volney Palow opens the first ad agency in Philadelphia.
1868 Francis Wayland Ayer opens N. W. Ayer and Sons in Philadelphia with just $250.
His first clients include Montgomery Ward, John Wannamaker Dept. Stores, Singer Sewing machines, and Pond’s beauty cream.
1873 The first convention for ad agencies held in New York.
1877 J.W. Thompson buys Culter and Smith from William J. Carlton and pays $500 for the business and $800 for the office furniture.
1880 Department Store founder John Wanamaker becomes first retailer to employ a full-time advertising copywriter John E. Powers.
Wannamaker makes famous statement: half my advertising is waste, I just don’t know which half.
1881 Daniel M. Lord and Ambrose L. Thomas form Lord and Thomas in Chicago.
1881 Procter and Gamble advertise Ivory Soap with an enormous budget of $11,000.
1886 N.W. Ayer promotes advertising with the slogan: Keeping everlastingly at it brings success.
1886 Richard Warren Sears became the world’s first direct marketer.
1891 George Batten and Co. opens.
1892 NW Ayer hires first full-time copywriter.
1892 Sears Roebuck formed.
1893 Printer’s Ink founded by George P. Rowell. A magazine that serves as the little schoolmaster in the art of advertising.
1898 N.W Ayer helps National Biscuit Co. launch the first pre-packaged biscuit Uneeda.
1899 Campbell Soup makes its first advertising.
1899 JWT becomes the first agency to open an office in London. 1900 N .W. Ayer establishes a business-getting department to plan ad campaigns.
1904 John E. Kennedy bursts onto the scene to change the face of advertising forever.
My next article will continue with the evolution of advertising as we know it.
Mail order guru Ted Nicholas said that the old marketers were the best and that they, and the works they produced, should be studied – he did!
