What does "4A" mean?

4A is the abbreviation of American Association of Advertising Agencies. American Association of Advertising Agencies. 4A Association has strict standards for its member companies, and all 4A advertising companies are large-scale comprehensive multinational advertising companies. .

19 17 was founded in St. Louis, USA, and is the earliest advertising agency association in the world. The association appeals to the media to ensure that the advertising fee of 1.5 is paid to advertising companies as media agency fees, so as to encourage advertisers to hire advertising companies to provide professional services (Japan established the agency fee system of 1.5 in 1.944). Because advertisers can't save money by buying time slots directly from the media at the same price as through advertising companies. From this time on, advertising companies gradually developed from simple media agency and creative service to full-service advertising agency, which is the so-called comprehensive advertising agency. It is an advertising company that can provide advertisers with all-round services such as market research, overall advertising planning, making media combination plans and promotion plans, designing and making advertisements, and measuring advertising effects. American 4A has its own self-discipline rules "Practice Standards and Creative Codes" (see the small document in this chapter 1-2). Violators will be expelled from membership, so as to bind member companies to abide by advertising ethics. Among the top 25 advertising companies with global turnover of 1995, 15 is headquartered in the United States. They are all American 4A advertising companies. Members of the association are responsible for 70%- 80% of the advertising business in the United States.

4A Association has strict standards for its member companies, and all 4A advertising companies are large-scale comprehensive multinational advertising companies. There are about 65,438+0,000 advertising companies in Hong Kong, with advertising turnover exceeding HK$ 6,543.8+0.2 billion. The Hong Kong Advertising Association, which is composed of branches of multinational advertising companies in Hong Kong, has only 1.9 members, and its advertising turnover accounts for more than half of the total advertising in Hong Kong. Hong Kong 4A Advertising Association requires its members to have an annual turnover of at least HK$ 50 million, and must charge customers 65,438+05% commission and 65,438+07.65% service fee. At present, only Guangzhou has established 4A Association in Chinese mainland, which is called "Guangzhou Comprehensive Advertising Agency Association" for short. Its members are both local companies and foreign companies.

1979 when China opened its business, Dentsu, the first foreign advertising company, began to advertise Japanese household appliances in the China market. Today, Dentsu has established three joint ventures in China. Since Japanese household appliances entered the China market in 1980s, more and more foreign brands have entered the China market. With the development of customer market, multinational 4A advertising companies are also closely following. By the end of 1994, there were 300 foreign (joint venture and cooperative) advertising companies (including most world-famous multinational advertising companies) entering the mainland. 1998 The top advertising companies in the world 10 have set up joint ventures in China (including Shi Sheng Great Wall International Advertising Co., Ltd., McCann Guangming Advertising Co., Ltd., Zhiwei Thompson Zhongqiao Advertising Co., Ltd., Shanghai Ogilvy Advertising Co., Ltd., Shanghai Lingshi Advertising Co., Ltd., Beijing Dentsu Advertising Co., Ltd., Meg Advertising Co., Ltd., etc.).

Due to the influx of a large number of international brands into China, multinational 4A advertising companies have developed rapidly in China. Among the top 50 advertising companies in Chinese mainland, 22 are foreign companies. Since 1996, multinational 4A advertising companies not only serve multinational customers, but also strive for big brand customers of domestic enterprises, opening up the domestic market, which has brought great impact to local advertising companies.

American 4A Creative Code

4A Members recognize that:

1. Advertising has dual responsibilities in the American economic system and national lifestyle. For the public, advertising is a basic way for everyone to understand the products and services of free enterprises, and it's everyone's turn.

Understand the basic ways of goods and services that meet your wishes and needs. People have the right to expect the contents of advertisements to be reliable and true.

For advertisers, advertising is the basic means to persuade people to buy their products or services in the fierce social competition. They have the right to use advertising as a means to promote business and gain profits.

Advertising is inseparable from the daily life of the American people. It has become an integral part of radio and television programs and entered the family, facing individuals and even the whole family; It's in the most popular newspaper.

Pool also has a place; It also shows itself to tourists and residents. In the above exhibitions, advertisements must respect everyone's interests and hobbies.

3. Advertisements are aimed at many people and have a wide range of goals, and everyone has different tastes and interests. Therefore, like mass undertakings-from sports to education to religion-advertisements are hard to get.

Everyone's favorite. Based on this, advertisers realize that they must operate under the traditional restrictions of the United States, serve the interests of the majority and respect the rights of the minority.

4A service standard

According to the service standards of advertising companies formulated by American Advertising Association (4A), the following items are important:

1. Study customers' products or services, and determine the advantages and disadvantages and competitiveness of the products themselves.

2. Analyze the current situation and potential of the market, and use its products and services to meet the market demand. Such as market location, possible sales volume, seasonality, trade and economic situation, etc. In analysis and research.

3. Pay attention to transportation and sales knowledge and its implementation methods.

4. Effectively use various media to explain the knowledge of products and services to consumers, wholesalers, agents and retailers, including the characteristics and effects of goods.

Operation Specification of Advertising Company 4A

What services can advertising companies provide?

Core services:

"Providing customers with effective advertising planning and works" is the core content of advertising companies to serve customers. All services extend from this core.

Before operation:

Advertising is a part of the customer's overall marketing plan, and the work of drafting the marketing plan should belong to the customer's own marketing department, but the advertising company should participate in the drafting as a business partner.

Process. At this stage, the role of advertising companies is basically to assist or consult, so that when making advertising plans, they can be more closely combined with the overall marketing plan.

Therefore, the services that advertising companies can provide at this stage include:

1. Assist in drafting the marketing plan;

Second, identify problems in specific markets;

3. Market survey (some advertising companies only provide assistance in relevant surveys);

Fourth, formulate the product concept;

5. Packaging design;

Sixth, establish CIS；;

7. Assist in developing new products, make suggestions on related projects, and assist before entering the advertising plan.

Advertising homework:

1. According to the marketing plan decided by customers, formulate the annual advertising activity plan, including advertising strategy, creative development, promotion activities, budget proposal, media plan and other related plans;

2. Make, supervise or purchase all related graphic products, including design, manuscript completion, copywriting, photography and film modification. ...

Three, the production of advertising films and broadcast drafts, including the selection of suitable production companies;

Analyze and select the appropriate media type, time or layout, and negotiate and buy media. For example: newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, outdoor advertisements …

5. Implementation of other related advertising activities.

Subsequent operations:

First, analysis of media execution results;

Second, the measurement of advertising effect.

How do advertising companies charge?

The basis for advertising companies to maintain good service lies in whether customers can get enough income and generate reasonable and fair profits. At the same time, advertising companies should also try their best to provide information to media units for customers.

Suppliers can get a reasonable use cost.

Fees and standards:

I. Media expenses

According to the pricing announced by the media. The commission income of this project is the main source of income for advertising companies. Mainly pay the following personnel expenses:

(1) business personnel;

(2) creative personnel;

(3) media personnel;

(4) Other administrative and financial personnel;

In fact, the biggest cost paid by advertising companies is the above-mentioned time cost, especially in modifying the direction and repeating the proposal, which is the main reason for the increase in operating costs of advertising companies.

Second, the production cost.

When the customer agrees with the draft (that is, sketch or concept script) put forward by the advertising company and decides to start execution, the expenses incurred are called production expenses.

Why do you charge for production?

Some customers are unwilling to pay the production fee on the grounds that "the advertising company already has commission income". If this reason holds, why does everyone accept that we have to pay the production fee for making commercials?

Use? "Because advertising films are much more expensive than graphic drafts, and at the same time, shooting advertising films is to find a product company, and making graphic drafts is often carried out by advertising companies." This is a message.

Life and the causes of mistakes.

Fatal place-

As a result, the production of graphic manuscripts is not fine enough.

Force advertising companies to complete at the lowest cost.

The wrong concept—

Think of the advertising company as a free production company.

In fact, the service of advertising companies is mainly to provide creative solutions, but because of the factors of the big environment, part of the implementation is still in the company-that is, the graphic production company has not yet formed, and the quality must be controlled in this way. Therefore, the customer does not pay the production cost.

We must remember that the value of agents to advertisers lies in the ideas that agents generate for advertisements (whether print media or electronic media) that are helpful to product sales, and these ideas can make significant differences in the market. It is not the value of the agent for the customer to make a flat draft or a finished draft of related materials. However, the agent will still finalize the plane draft and related materials. There are two reasons: the first is necessity. Agents have to handle the work of graphic production by themselves, because there are few graphic production companies with high professional level at present. Secondly, it is about the quality management of advertising products. Because a good idea may be destroyed by a poorly made finished draft, the agent takes the quality management of the finished draft as his own responsibility to ensure the best effect in print media as much as possible. Agents try their best to produce the best finished draft for only one reason: to maximize the advertising effect of customers. Therefore, in the production execution stage, customers should regard the advertising company as a production company and pay the production expenses.