Ye Olde Sponsored Post: 5 Examples Of Medieval Yet Modern Marketing

5 min readJun 16, 2021

Tired of being bombarded with ads on Facebook and Instagram?

Or the sneaky Google Ad that magically shows the product you just talked about a few hours ago?

You’ll be glad to know that you aren’t alone. As long as there has been a stable human civilization, there have been marketers looking to sell something you might not need. In fact, advertising has been bugging us for at least 5000 years!

This article sheds light on five marketing practices from the dark ages. Surprisingly, these techniques aren’t all that different from what we use in the current tech age!

1. CTAs (Call To Action)

CTAs are the holy grail of content marketing. Since the entire goal of this digital marketing technique is to push a user to do something — download an eBOOK, sign up for a newsletter, make a purchase, CTAs politely command the reader to take action.

Speaking of which, check out my other articles here. ;)

That’s a common example of a modern CTA, but this trick has been used for around 8 centuries.

Back when books were written with the same instruments used by Hogwarts, only a few literate people (mostly connected to the church) could use pen and ink.

Manuscripts had to be manually and painfully copied line by line. Due to this, books were rare, and some people could have a hard time finding them.

But not to worry, a Parisian scribe named Herneis had the solution for you. On the final page of a book he had copied, he wrote this little note: “If someone else would like such a handsome book, come and look me up, across the Notre Dame cathedral.’

Source: https://medievalbooks.nl/2014/12/05/medieval-spam-the-oldest-advertisements-for-books/

If you followed his directions, you would find yourself in the ‘Rue Neuve Notre Dame’, which was a hub for written books. This was simple and effective. No wonder why we still use CTAs to share our products and services.

2. “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen this section on most e-commerce sites. Similar to the CTA, they nudge users to act on an impulse and buy another product.

That’s exactly what scribes in 15th century Holland were looking for. In a religious book, historians found this message: “If you like this copy of the Old Testament, I can also copy the New Testament for you.”

In case you were impressed by his/her work, you could do the medieval equivalent of ‘Add To Cart’ which was probably to ask them politely that you want another. And within 3 weeks or 3 months, a fresh new book would arrive at your doorstep (well technically, you’ll have to carry it from the store.)

3. Social Media Influencers

“Oyez Oyez Oyez,

If ‘t be true thou art looking f’r a quiet lodging to stayeth, Ye Olde Hogs Inn at Westmynstre is what thee desire. Useth coupon code #newinn50 f’r a 50% discount.

God save the king!”

This is what a modern influencer would have sounded before Shakespeare’s time. However, they did exist — in a different form.

So who were they?

The town criers. In the era when most people couldn’t read or write, these guys were usually literate, loud voiced men (or women) chosen by the king to communicate important information. Armed with a loud bell or a horn, they made royal proclamations, mentioned changes in local laws, notified the public about market days, and even advertised products (if you asked them to.) Sometimes, they would fasten their scroll to a door post so the few knowledgeable folk could read it whenever they were bored. Criers were literally ‘posting’ their content. And this is where the phrase ‘posting a notice’ comes from.

4. Personal Branding

Internet and remote work has made it way easier for companies to find great potential hires.

Unable to find a candidate in your area?

There would be someone five time zones apart who can do the job.

However, this is bad news if you’re looking to get hired. You’ll have to compete with tons of other individuals to even get noticed. That’s why personal branding has become a golden ticket to get a gig; and a lot of professionals establish their brand on micro-blogging sites, websites, and social media.

This current situation is very similar to what happened between 1200–1500. Prior to that time, mostly monks copied books by hand.

But in the 13th century, more and more became literate, books became cheaper, and demand soared. Urban professionals started producing them and the competition increased. Unfortunately, a scribe at the time didn’t have LinkedIn to show off their previous work or recommendations to the client — they had ‘advertisement sheets.’

These marketing materials acted like an ancient portfolio. One of them included ten different fancy writing styles or scripts of the same text which demonstrated their expertise. Patrons could choose which font they would like in their book. These sheets were usually displayed on the door of the scribe’s shop.

Herman’s ad sheet also tells the reader that if they want to learn how to write, they could approach him for lessons — eerily similar to life coaches, project management experts, and video course instructors of today.

5. Free Samples

While people usually don’t like to be sold something, most of us wouldn’t have said no to free samples at the supermarket.* And even more so, if the product was wine.

In 12th century France, town criers went to taverns with different types of wines in wooden casks, and gave free samples to the people present there.

If the patron liked the drink, the crier could sell it to them directly. This might have ticked off a few bar-owners, but they couldn’t stop the criers as they were protected by the king. Sounds like a crier’s life sounds anything but sad!

History Doesn’t Repeat, It Rhymes

Royal messengers gave way to email, scribes transformed into self-published authors, and hawkers are now known as cold callers. While so much has changed in a half a millennium, the essence of marketing remains the same.

In 3021, historians would probably look back at our crude techniques and be amazed that they are not so different from us after all, despite interplanetary travel (I hope.)