Functions, types and forms of advertising

The essentials

Advertising performs economic and social functions. It informs consumers about products and prices, persuades them to choose a brand, reminds them of familiar brands, supports the media financially and can spread social messages. Advertising comes in many types depending on purpose and sponsor, and in many forms depending on how the message is placed.

Key points

• Functions: informing, persuading, reminding, building brand image, increasing sales, and funding newspapers, TV and websites.
• Product advertising: promotes a particular good.
• Institutional (corporate) advertising: builds the image of a company rather than selling one product.
• Public service advertising: promotes social causes such as road safety or vaccination, often by governments or NGOs.
• Comparative advertising: compares one brand with a rival.
• Classified advertising: small, low-cost ads grouped under headings like jobs, property and matrimony.
• Display advertising: larger ads with pictures and design.
• Cross-promotion: two brands promote each other jointly, for example a film tied up with a soft drink.
• Merchandise: products such as T-shirts, toys and mugs carrying a film's or brand's name or characters.
• Covert (surrogate or embedded) advertising: promoting a brand indirectly, for example product placement inside a film scene, or surrogate advertising where a product whose ads are restricted is promoted through another item with the same brand name.

Exam tips

Learn one example for each type. Case questions often describe a placement and ask you to name the form.

Common mistakes

Product placement is not cross-promotion. In product placement a brand appears inside content; in cross-promotion two partners jointly advertise each other.