Where to advertise?

May 22, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Many businesses today are faced with a challenge: whether to focus on advertising in the print media or switch to digital advertising or to develop a marketing strategy with a blend of both mainstream media advertising and social media advertising. This column will make a case for more print media advertising and demonstrate why it is still the better advertising option.

It is indisputable that social media has transformed advertising. Digital advertising has gained tremendous popularity mainly on account of its ability to reach a wide audience and at a cheaper cost than other forms of advertising. It has presented a serious challenge to print media advertising.

The basis for the establishment of social media platforms was its advertising potential. Social media was created for advertising. A number of content providers – people and sites that provide information using social media – have tapped into the insatiable appetite of the public for instant news. They have acquired a significant following and they are now capitalizing on that following in order to attract advertising revenues.

Advertisers, looking at the reach of these local content providers, have been placing digital ads on these platforms. But is digital advertising having the anticipated returns and is it superior to print advertising? While social media advertising may have considerable reach, not only is that reach matched by print media advertising but also print media advertising has a greater response rate than social media advertising. There is the view that social media advertising has the potential to reach large audiences and to do so at the same time. But this is not necessarily so. Even if a content provider has 150,000 followers, it does not mean that all of them will see the advertisement at the same time.

I have monitored digital ads and have found that does not have instantaneous reach because not everyone is on social media at the same time. Some persons look at the ad two or three days after it is posted and in some cases one week later. Persons’ news feeds are so saturated up with the posts of friends and followers that it easy to bypass the digital ads. There is also a gross underestimation of the reach of newspapers. While at best today the circulation of a newspaper may at around 30,000 per day, there is a multiplier effect when it comes to reach. Every newspaper is read on average by about 5 persons. A person takes his newspaper home and it is read by the entire family. The newspaper in the office is shared around by ten or more persons. The reach of newspapers therefore cannot be judged by circulation alone. It has to take into account of the fact that numerous persons read a single newspaper.

Secondly, neither reach nor interaction amounts to responsiveness. Advertisers are not looking for comments and likes; they are looking for sales. I have found greater responsiveness to print media advertising.

Advertisers therefore should ask themselves whether social media advertising has had a greater impact on sales than print media advertising. My experience is that while social media has considerable reach, its responsiveness is very poor.

There are a number of other advantages associated with print media advertising. For one, print media such as newspapers and magazines and flyers, are tangible. This physical presence ensures engagement. It is much easier to scroll past an ad on social media than to ignore one in the print media. The tangibility of the print media has another considerable advertising advantage over digital advertising. Print media allows for more creativity. When you look at the KFC’s full page advertisement in the newspaper, you just feel a need to want to bite into a piece of chicken. A few weeks ago, a beer advertisement appeared in a newspaper. The image of those cold beers with the beads of evaporation visible on the outside of the bottles makes you want to reach for a cold one. You can’t have that effect with a social media ad.

People buy products and use services that they trust and they look for credible sources to recommend such products and services. The print media enjoys greater credibility than social media. All sorts of characters and groups can be found on social media. Not all not all are trustworthy and some are trusted more than others and some are trusted by some and not be others. This is less of a problem with the print media and this fact enhances the credibility of the advertisement. You are not going to find persons who peddle sub-standard products and services wanting to spend good money on print media.

Social media has the advantage of engagement. But that engagement can be annoying. I have seen digital ads on social media where the person placing the ad makes it clear that if you want to know the cost of the product you should inbox. Yet over and over again, we see comments such a, “Price please!” and “Do you have extra-large?” Some companies have had to take the position that they cannot respond to social media inquiries. And responding all comes at an added cost to the company because they have to pay someone to respond to social media inquiries.

Digital media is very intrusive. You open the news feed on your phone and you are bombarded with advertisements. Some content providers are now so awash with advertisements that they do not bother too much with news reporting. The oversaturation with sponsored ads on social media can lead to fatigue and negative user experience.

Print media advertising, on the other hand, is not as aggressive. It allows you to engage at your own pace. You can read the news in a newspaper and them come back later and look at the advertisements and you can choose what to read or not read. In this way the print media is less instructive, respects your privacy and affords you freedom of choice.

Print media advertising has a lasting effect. I still remember an advertisement I saw about BOAC in a magazine years ago. Up to this day I associated BOAC with comfortable air travel because of the memory of that advertisement I still remember some of the newspaper advertisements of movies which I saw eons ago. This enduring effect helps support brand recognition and retention. Today, the brand is important in marketing. People naturally associate certain brands with quality

While social media has a larger user base, it does not reach all audiences. More matured persons, for example, are less likely to be on social media. And some folks are worried about the lengthy time spent on social media. One person recently told me that his I phone clocked him as being on average 8 hours per day on social media. Parents have been complaining about the time their children spend on social media. But no parent complains about the time spent on reading a newspaper or magazine, unless it is those sleazy tabloids of pornographic publications. Print media advertising therefore remains a powerful and reliable tool for marketers. It may cost more but its reach is considerable and its responsiveness and credibility are far superior to that of digital advertising. It supports brand recognition and retention and also has the added advantage of reaching demographics not active on social media. Print media advertising is still the best bet for advertisers.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

 

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• advertise, businesses, Peeping Tom, print media

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