When we think of adverts and advertisers, commercial brands spring to mind. Coca Cola, MacDonald’s, -historically- the tobacco industry, are the key players. These brands and private industries certainly have the creative spend, the commercial drive and the huge advertising teams to be able to run the industry and buy the essential Superbowl advertising slot for their creations.
However, is it really the major world brands who are the pioneering force in the advertising industry? Governments and world leaders have used art & architecture for centuries to ‘advertise’ & glorify their regimes, WWI introduced some of the most memorable poster campaigns ever to be seen, and viral social media videos were a technique harnessed by non-profit organisations far before their commercial counterparts.
So maybe, when looking to the next marketing platforms, like mobile and augmented reality, we should pay more attention to the charities, the government and health organisations. Unlike some of the brands who are still shying away from these new platforms, charities, government & health organisations are writing it into their strategy . They realise that a texted donation, a real-time opportunity to raise awareness or notify the public of a major world event, is the future of marketing, and, yet again, they seem to have realised it first.