An opportunity for newspapers?
Posted by Bob Benz
Via Greg Sterling, Dynamic Logic research shows consumer reaction to ads in various media. Perhaps surprisingly, consumers are a lot more amenable to ads in traditional media than new, and newspapers are at the top of the heap with 42% of respondents having a “somewhat positive” view of newspaper ads.
Is it time for print to start borrowing some of the measurability that’s common online? Why don’t more papers use 800-numbers in ads so they can track the actual phone calls their ads drive? How about the ability to track e-mail or web responses using proxy server technology (think of something like Tiny URLs in print ads that help the paper measure how many people are going to the advertiser’s site based on what they saw in print)? Online products have been doing this for a long time.
It would be really interesting to see someone buy one of the myriad newspapers on the market based on a pro forma that would allow for a sane, easy to understand rate card that completely rethinks some of the gouging that’s created advertiser disdain for newspapers.
Yes, newspapers have lost much of the marketplace status they once held. But most of them still have significant classified franchises and ad volume. And they have substantial, albeit dwindling, local audience. Cutting rate (sorry, Mark, someone had to say it) might be the right, if counterintuitive, way to re-establish some of that clout with advertising that consumers actually like. What if you coupled this with a compelling online strategy that isn’t afraid to put advertisers on the web — even at the expense of the print product if it makes more sense for the advertiser?
Maybe it’s not too late for a truly innovative — even disruptive — approach to print advertising. But it probably will have to come from someone arriving fresh to the industry with a sober view of the current economics it faces. Recent “fresh” arrivals haven’t followed this route …
Dynamic Logic research results
Other posts by Bob Benz
Tags: Dynamic Logic, Greg Sterling
September 8th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Exactly why Google Print ads in the U.S. already use a form of scannable bar code: scan it with a laser reader and get more information from the advertiser.
And it’s not the CueCat revisited, either. Googlers make no secret that the codes today are popular only in Japan — where people use bar code scanners built into their mobile phones! Yet Google sees enough potential to make room for the codes in Stateside ads, knowing almost no one here has phones that will scan … yet.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:44 am
It is interesting that the most targetable channels for advertising seem to have the highest neutral and negative ratings.
The neutrality appears to correspond to the ignorablilty and the negativity seems to follow the inverse of ignorability, while the positive scores align more with channels with entertaining and informative ads.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
We have seen positive response to adding in text messaging trigger codes to print to make the ad interactive. A unique code that lets the advertiser and media property know what ad had best response. Instead of driving a user to new technology or waiting for scanning programs for 2d codes, use what 100million+ media consumers already use daily…text messaging. Unique codes to measuere ad response, and deliver to conumer redirect info for more info online/offline, or include wap url to push to mobile web page or simply a click to call phone number to the client’s business. Using new media and tie it to well known traditional media is easier for advertisers to handle. Bundle and Package and lead your clients to thier new customers.