Covert Advertising - The new age form of Advertising

Covert Advertising, as the name suggests, refers to advertisement where the main item endorsed is hidden behind another media. This form of advertisement is best suited for television and movies. It is the most common form of advertising in stealth marketing in entertainment programming. 

 

But firstly, before we dive into what Covert Advertising is, let’s familiarise ourselves with the basic different types of Advertising.

 

Advertising and its Types

 

Increasing competition, technological developments, changes of demographic characteristics of the consumers have led to a massive change in ways of marketing and advertising. 

 

Advertising refers to a marketing communication process that enables the brands to promote their products or services through the potential customers by using various mediums of platforms like TV channels, Social Media Platforms, Newspapers, News-letters etc. 

 

The ultimate aim of advertising is to influence and persuade the target consumers to come and buy their respective products that they are endorsing for. 

 

Some of the features of advertising could be: spreading awareness, increasing goodwill of the brand, encourage audience to purchase the products, build a positive image among the consumers 

 

The actual manifestation of these promotions are termed as ‘Ads’ or ‘adverts’.

 

 Some types of Advertisements are;

 

• Print Advertising - Oldest form of advertising, involves printing ads in the newspapers, or magazines. The endorsers can also use printing filers, promotional brochures and much more. The costing of such advertising depends on the size, readership and circulation of the ad. 

 

• Billboard Advertising - Billboard comes under outdoor methods of advertisement. It serves as an efficient way of advertising as it spreads the message across masses. 

 

Billboards are set up at common places which witnesses a large number of people on a daily basis in order to spread the message across a mass. Advertisers have developed the latest technology called the Mobile Billboards.

 

• Radio Advertising - As the radios began to gain popularity, advisers found it to be the best way in order to endorse their products. It was an additional way to the newspapers ads and pamphlets. 

 

Short time ads were being played in between match commentary, and songs as the target consumer’s attention span was the strongest at that moment of time. 

 

• Television Advertising - Considered as the king of advertising. Jingles and high quality graphics are used to make the advertisement more attractive by enhancing the quality of it. Due to its effectiveness, it comes under the priciest medium.

 

• Covert advertising - It's a recent development in the field of advertising. It uses media and other entertainment channels to subtly showcase products of a particular brand. 

 

(Get a better understanding of what Classified Advertising is)

 

 

What is Covert Advertising?

 

The phrase covert refers to anything that's hidden behind anything else. Have you ever seen an actor drinking coca cola between movies? That is an example of Covert advertising! The brand Coca-Cola is endorsing itself through the movie without being the centre of attraction. 

 

It is termed as covert because it is not a direct advertisement, the viewers subliminally notice the product while watching the movie. Many big filmmakers and producers use this type of advertising because they pay an incursion fee for their products within a film leading to a win-win situation for both the directors and the endorser. 

 

In today’s time with such competitive markets with extensive brand availability each and every marketer needs to find a way in order to stand out from competitors. Thus there is always a search for such new innovative ways of marketing. Covert Advertising basically involves placing the products within the films or television programs in such a manner that the audience will not realize that the brand is using it as a medium of promoting their respective products. 

 

Covert Advertising should not be misinterpreted with celebrity endorsements. They are two totally different things. Celebrity Endorsements are wherein the celebrities endorse the products, services, and brands with commercial purpose which generally have intervals termed as breaks in between the television programs. 

 

On the other hand, covert advertising occurs with the name of the brand and logo in any random shot of the movie, at times the main protagonists are seen using the brand products in the movie which is a way of covert advertising. 

 

It is considered to be less costly as compared to other advertising techniques like celebrity endorsements, some of the firms also provide their products or services to the film producers. 

 

For instance, Adidas does not pay any fees to be a part of the movies but often provides shoes, clothes, bags etc as a medium of exchange. Covert Advertising aims to pay audience attention to the communication which is quietly done by advertisers. 

 

(Recommended blog - Mobile Advertising)
 

 

Examples of Covert Advertising

 

Pepsi in India, for instance, has benefited from placement in some superhit movies like ‘Kuch-Kuch hota hai, along with celebrity endorsement by bollywood star Sharukh Khan. 

 

We have all seen movies and shows showing corporate meetings. Generally the laptops and other electronic devices are observed to be “Apple Products”, be it ipads, iphones or macbooks. 

 

The movie Dhoom-I and Dhoom-II has left a strong imprint on the mind of the youth of the county, after the release the sales of motorbikes rose upto 40%. There are a number of more such instances that can be observed. These all fall under covert advertising techniques. 

 

 

Techniques of Covert Advertising 

 

There are various techniques used in Covert Advertising. Some of them are as follows:

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Techniques of Covert Advertising

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• Product Placement: This marketing practice is usually used by advertisers and sponsors in order to promote their product by placing its respective logo, trademark, package, brand name and signage by putting into some television programmes or motion pictures.  

 

• Sponsorship: Another covert advertising technique used by marketers. Under this the advertisements are entertaining and visually appealing and it is neither  involved in hard selling of the product nor are very informative about the details of the products or its services. 

 

The sponsorship will link the product directly to the movie or television programme. Although it is costlier than product placement, it is an efficient way of advertising. Eg- movie ‘Mere Dad Ki Maruti’ was sponsored by Maruti suzuki. 

 

• Viral Marketing: It includes any marketing done on the social media platforms that allows users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users in different manner by creating potential growth in the message’s visibility and its impact on the consumers mind. Viral marketing creates a platform for others to communicate the marketing message through the internet.

 

          (Related Blog- Effective Marketing Techniques)

 

• Guerrilla Marketing: This type of covert advertising technique targets the audience or consumers through specialized media. It involves greater investments in terms of time, energy and creativity. 

 

Deals with groups rather than individuals. Guerrilla Marketing is required as it provides an advantage to the small business houses, economical aspects in the high priced world and reflects simplicity in the complicated, competitive world. 

 

These techniques also involve a lot of psychological play and the ability to understand the target customer's mindset and belief in order to make an advertisement that they are able to connect to. 

 

Placement of the product at the right place and right time is the key essential feature of covert advertising strategy. 

 

Pros & Cons of Covert Advertising

 

Pros

 

• The brand will gain greater credibility and recognition as the products are being endorsed by reputed people like the celebrities.

 

• There is massive reach and promotion with the help of this type of advertising. Thus reaches a greater number of target customers.

 

• There are certain companies and organisations that only use covert advertising in order to launch their products by celebrities resulting in greater sales of the product.

 

• Certain remote areas lack the facilities of television and cinema halls become the last resort for their entertainment. During the movies if the products are well placed, the marketer is able to spread across the message through these remote areas as well.

 

Cons

 

• The marketers lack the control over how and where the products will be placed in between the movies and television programs. It may result in ignorance, criticism and misuage of the brand. 

 

• The marketers may also fail to recognize where to place the products and services for maximum possible exposure by the audience.

 

•  If there are too many product placements at very less intervals of time consumers may feel exhausted and leads to a negative brand impact.

 

• It can also lead to negative association. If one consumer forms a negative brand image it can further lead to spreading a wrong brand image leading to negative promotion of the brand and the marketer.

 

(Recommended blog - Omnichannel Marketing)

 

Covert advertising is considered to be one of the best ways of advertising as this type of advertising has a psychological imprint on the mind of the consumers as when the product is placed in the movie the consumer forms a relation with the product being used in the shot. The use of traditional celebrities soon has a greater positive impact on the mind of the consumers.