12 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May 15 



AS THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT SEES IT 



In commemoration of the foitieth anniversary of the N. W. Ayer & Son Ad- 

 vertising Agency, a dinner was given at the Bellevue Stratford, Philadelphia, April 24, 

 at which were present 262 employees and officers. 



This event has a significance outside of technical advertising circles interesting to 

 every reader of magazines and newspapers. We read the advertising pages of our pa- 

 pers carefully, and profit by the icnowledge thus gained; still, but few of us know any 

 thing about the man behind the attractive pictures and well-worded copy. 



Forty years ago advertising and advertising agencies, as we know them to-day, 

 were not dreamed of except in the minds of a few far-sighted men of the hour like Mr. 

 Ayer, the founder of the present agency bearing his name. He started the business 

 with an investment of $250. The company now carry on their books an average of 

 18,000 accounts, and the amount they have paid to publishers of this country exceeds 

 $50,000,000. Such success is not achieved without a great deal of hard work and many 

 disheartening discouragements. Advertising has become a modern business necessity. 

 It was hard to convince the conservative business man who found his old methods good 

 enouo'h twenty-five years ago that the world has grown away from him and his busi- 

 ness, and that to keep up with the more aggressive generation he must meet them on 

 their own ground and fight them with their own weapons. Not many years ago the 

 man who spent a few hundred dollars for advertising was looked on almost with deri- 

 sion; but time has proven that his method was the only sure one for building up the 

 vast enterprises of the world. 



It is fitting that such a work should have a name and business of its own, and the 

 outcome has been the establishing of large advertising agencies over all the country. 

 They employ the best skill obtainable for the benefit of their clients. An advertising 

 man worthy of the name does not simply suggest mediums and write copy. He stud- 

 ies the particular needs of each client; gets into the heart of his business; makes him- 

 self a part of the vast machinery, and finally takes the most important part — that of 

 finding a market for the product. Ayer's definition cf an advertising agent is "one 

 who creates, develops, distributes, and cares for advertising other than his own." To 

 do this he must study not only the manufacturer's side of the question, but that of the 

 consumer as well. He must know, first of all, that the article is worthy of notice. He 

 must then study to place its good points before the public in the best light possible. A 

 manufacturer may produce the best automobile or buggy or stove in the world; but 

 unless his advertising agent takes pains to tell this to the public in a manner that is 

 convincing beyond all doubt, they will pass his product by for one of perhaps inferior 

 merit which is more cleverly advertised. The public has no time to investigate the 

 merits of the article on the market for itself, and it is up to the advertising man to do 

 this for them. 



With the intimate knowledge which the advertising man has of publications orer 

 all the country, he is in better position to suggest mediums than the advertiser him- 

 self. It is a part of his business to study the clientele of each medium offering adver- 

 tising space to know in what class of merchandise they are interested, and the argument 

 which will best appeal to them. He goes into the homes of the readers, as it were ; he 

 learns their daily wants; he studies their condition, and finally suggests to th m in the 

 form of attractive advertisements in their favorite paper or magazine an improvement 

 in their present surroundings and the best of every thing for comfort and success. 



