I fully realize that the media landscape has changed radically and although I strongly do not believe "Print Is Dead" (ironically enough, some of these cries are from the print media themselves), I do realize that print media is one piece of a media plan that contains many more distribution channels than used to be contained in a typical plan.
Print is not dead. In fact in a recent audience study, we learned that 69% of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing's total audience regularly reads print b2b magazines. Although print is not dead, it is more difficult to get basic and quick metrics to gauge whether or not an ad is resonating. The Great Recession caused most companies to focus their spending on only activities where ROI (or professed ROI) could be measured. I get this and honestly don't disagree with it.
I have had numerous disagreements with clients and colleagues on what is being measured, how metrics are collected and the priority of importance assigned to the metrics.
Many claim that print advertising effectiveness cannot be measured. I agree that it is more difficult to measure interest (especially casual/initial interest) generated from a print ad than from a web ad. In fact, I have pondered this issue for a lot of years.
But, some tools and approaches for measuring print ads are coming into focus.
1) I am currently reading a book entitled "How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of 'Intangibles' in Business," by Douglas Hubbard. Stay tuned as this book is offering some interesting insights on how to approach measuring things that appear at first blush to be unmeasurable or at least very complex to measure.
2) QR Codes. While QR Codes are not the be all and end all, they are a tool that can offer opportunity for direct measurement. Be careful not to write off an ad...deeming it ineffective...if you don't get dozens and dozens of people taking additional engagement steps via your QR code in your print ad. But, there is an opportunity here and there are approaches that make sense and are effective and approaches that do not make sense.
"Five Tips for Implementing a Successful QR Code Campaign" is a really well written piece that offers some great advice and offers some comments that will help you to establish and frame expectations.
3) Vanity/Tracking URLs in print ads. This is also not a fool-proof approach by any means, but it is a tool. Most companies have been using vanity URLs in print ads for some time now, but many companies do not use the approach as strategically as they could. Promoting the content that can be accessed via the vanity URL within your print ad is definitely advised. What are prospective customers going to find if they visit the page? - a video, a calculator of some kind, a white paper, a handbook....??? Give them a reason to visit.
For the foreseeable future, print advertising has role and a place within B2B marketing communications plans. The reason is simple...69% of your customers and prospects (a much larger percentage that is doing any other one single activity) are reading B2B print publications. To say that print advertising does not have a place because it "can't be measured" is both untrue and results in marketing programs that are not nearly as effective as they should be.
Make a comment below to let me know what you think.
Print and digital media have been working to effectively integrate for some time now. Like any new movement, new direction...it takes time for equilibrium and a new reality to be established. There have been stops and starts to be sure, but it is happening.
Print media as a whole is not going away, just as radio did not go away as TV became an entrenched media source for America and for the world. Radio did not go away, but it changed radically. Families stopped sitting around their radios in their living rooms starting blankly into space conjuring fantastic images of the Lone Ranger and his adventurers. America started sitting around their living rooms staring at images being delivered for them on their television sets. Radio became more music and news centric rather than featuring soap operas and serial adventures. This was a radically media transformation that happened within a fairly short period of time and we are experiencing a similar print/digital media transition.
Augmented reality experiences being promoted via print and other traditional media mechanisms is one example of how the blending of the old and the new is shaping. Despite all of the snappy technology, ultimately media consumers will decide what is value and worth their time and what is not. So as with any epic transitions, only time will tell.
But as smart marketers and media professionals we need to watch, listen and strategically experiment. The one thing that is certain for marketers is that this print/media transition will not conclude, then stay fairly stable for 50 years as the radio/television transition did. The changes will continue to be fast and constant, so buckle in and enjoy the long, fun and constantly changing ride.
Just two recent examples of the print/digital transition - Starbucks and Commonwealth Bank are using traditional and non-digital vehicles to promote high-tech augmented reality apps.
Many of your know that Putman Media, the publishing company that owns Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, has invested heavily over the course of the last seven years in digital media. We have invested heavily in technology tools, continual optimization of our websites, and most importantly in human capital (knowledge and training of our people).
Digital media investment is continuing at Putman Media, there is no question about that, but I would like to call attention to our renewed investment in our print property.
Have we lost our minds? “Print is Dead” has been the rallying cry within the B2B marketing press for several years now. I could wax poetic about our emotionally attachment to the printed word (including why I still get excited when the new issue of the magazine arrives at the office or how I have always loved the smell within the stacks at a university library), but our decision to invest in print was a specific and thoughtful business decision. There are multiple reasons, but I will highlight three:
1. From audience studies, we know that half of our audience (roughly half of your clients and prospects) prefer print and engage more heavily with Pharmaceutical Manufacturing magazine than with digital media. We needed to add investment dollars to a medium half of your customers prefer – hopefully you will see the importance of this too.
2. We know that print still carries an authority that digital media does not always. How do I know this? When our editors approach their sources and share that the source's contribution will run online only, there is typically mild enthusiastic. When our editors share that the piece will run in print and online – the source is excited.
Many of our clients today only want to spend against digital media, but want their PR activity to run in print and online (the magazine typically being the priority). Hmmmmm……scratching my head over this one. If digital media is most important for advertising, shouldn’t it be most important for PR as well? From my experience, this is not the thinking of many of our clients and it does not make sense. Actually, I understand why some companies are thinking this way (measurability primarily) but, when you put the strategy/tactic against the light of reason it does not make sense.
3. Everyone’s e-mail box is jammed and their mail box is pretty sparse. We believe that we are offering an expanded opportunity for our clients to break through the marketing clutter allowing them to better communicate with clients and prospects.
So….what will this investment mean in reality?
- 18-20% more editorial pages per issue
- An even greater emphasis on content quality (and the bar was awfully high before)
- The addition of some new regular features and content approaches that we have not had the space for in a while
- More premium advertising positions to offer our advertisers
For more on these sentiments, you might be interested in a blog post on this topic: “Seven Reasons Print Will Make a Comeback in 2011”
I am a self-professed centrist on many issues. Those who know me would not classify me as a wishy washy person and I have some kind of opinion on most everything. So, being a centrist does not mean having a lack of conviction, it simply means that on so many issues in life and in business, the answer lies somewhere between the extremes.
Americans are often big fans of extremes--we like there to be a clear winner and a clear loser, good and evil, black and white... Yes, some issues are clear, but many are more complex.
Is print dead? No. Is digital media the sole future of b2b marketing? No. Is digital media unimportant? No.
Print has been battered by this recession because effective print advertising often requires a bit more thinking and you have to be very strategic to "prove ROI" (some of my thoughts on "proving ROI" are contained in posts in August and September of 2008). A print ad does not deliver directly measurable instantaneous clicks. This does not mean print advertising does not have an important place in today's marketing mix.
By the same token, you can do things online that are simply impossible in print.
Like so many things, the answer to the question, "What does an effective marketing mix look like today?" is....it depends. In many cases mixing the old with the new in new ways is the path to greatest success. One of the many entertaining debates on this topic can be found within a recent Folio blog post.
