ADVERTISING AGENCIES HAVE DEVELOPED ART OF SELLING TO HIGH DEGREE

"I believe that the firm which is generally credited with being the real pioneer was the firm of George P. Rowell & Company which was established in 1865 in New York City," said Mr. H. K. McCann, President of the McCann Advertising Agency of New York City, in a recent interview for the CRIMSON on the origin, organization and function of the advertising agency in modern business. "This agency secured rate cards from newspapers all over the country and made some effort to appraise advertising values. It was the first agency that was equipped to recommend to an advertiser a list of the publications he should use, and able to render him an estimate of the cost of same.

"In those days newspaper advertising was about the only method offered to the prospective advertiser since the great magazine development had not started, and the street car and other methods of advertising, were for the most part, non-existent.

"It must be borne in mind, too, that advertising at that time was more or less of a mystery. No one had as yet made an effort to study advertising in a scientific way and attempt to establish certain definite principles and practices for its use.

"As time went on, however, and the advertising business grew, the necessity for the professional advisor and the advertising expert became apparent. Business men, on the one hand, who wished to apply the selling forces of advertising to their industries, and the publishers, on the other hand, who had advertised space to sell, both felt the need of organizations that could give the advertiser intelligent advice, and by producing effective advertising make the publishers' space valuable.

Agency Is an Advertising Counsel

"So, today, the advertising agency is no longer a mere broker of advertising space in newspapers, but it is an organization of experienced advertising counsel. The advertising agency today is engaged or retained by an advertiser to advise with the company as to the need for advertising--when, where and how much advertising shall be done, and of what type it shall be. When the agency and the advertiser have jointly determined on a policy, an advertising plan is prepared, and it is the function of the advertising agency to carry out this plan in all its details.

"The agency stands in a confidential relation to each of its advertising clients, just as a lawyer does. In order to develop a higher standard of practice, the better advertising agencies of the country organized in 1917 the American Association of Advertising Agencies. This organization has at the present time 133 members, representing agencies located in all the principal cities in the United States,--and the combined volume of business handled annually by the members of this organization totals approximately $250,000,000.

"In order to deliver the highest type of service to its clients, as well as to handle the large volume of work efficiently, it is necessary for the modern advertising agency to divide up its work into various departments and to employ people who have specialized in various branches of the work. There are several operating departments in our organization, all of which may be involved in the production of the work. There is The Commercial Research Department which is highly important as the development and proper arrangement of a set of facts makes possible the right decision as regards a marketing and advertising policy. The Media Department has to do with the collecting of rates and information with regard to all the various classes of advertising media in the country, while there are also The Estimate, The Order, The Production, The Forwarding, The Auditing and The Billing Department.

"The personnel of the successful modern advertising agency represents a rather wide diversity of talent. At the--top there must be executive and administrative ability. The organization must have met with a broad knowledge of the fundamentals of marketing and advertising, and the ability to apply this knowledge in a practical way in the development of constructive advertising plans. The analyst and statistician must be there also in order to dig out and compile the facts which are necessary for the building of any sound plan. And then there must be creative ability in order that the advertisements which are produced may be not only truthful and informative, but also attractive and interesting.

"To attract and hold the attention of the casual reader is no mean task in these days when there is so much to attract the attention and divert the mind, and the advertising man must either consciously or unconsciously be something of a psychologist in order that he may work out just the right appeal to interest the particular group of people to whom his advertising campaign is directed.

Advertising Becoming Centralized

"A great advantage of the advertising agency to the advertiser is the fact that he secures through it a breadth and degree of advertising experience which is practically impossible to duplicate through any other channel. An advertising agency, operating as it does in many different lines of business, and placing advertising in every form of medium, has an opportunity to observe the effect of all the different types of advertising display and appeal. In addition, an advertising agency through its affiliation with the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, the Association of National Advertisers, and other similar bodies, obviously has an opportunity to absorb the most advanced advertising through and practice as expressed through these established and recognized organizations. Just as all telephone lines lead to a central office, so all advertising lines converge at an advertising agency, and by reason of this fact, the agency is able to put at the disposal of its clients a breadth of information and experience which is not available from any other source."