Print advertising was on the witness stand today at the annual Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Print Advertising Forum, held at the Grand Hyatt in New York.
The keynote address presented by Mark Kaline, Global Media Manager, Ford Motor Company, and Chair, ANA Print Advertising Committee, and Robert Liodice, CEO and president of the ANA, focused on current challenges in the print advertising space and the increasing needs of advertisers for improvements in marketing accountability.
“To maximize their investment in print media, marketers desire an array of measurement enhancements,” said Kaline. “These include issue-specific circulation data, cumulative information that clearly shows how a magazine’s audience builds over time and reader involvement insights that increase understanding of consumer behavior patterns.”
According to a recent ANA survey of 117 senior marketers detailing views on magazine and newspaper media issues, only half of the respondents (51%) intend to keep their magazine advertising budgets at the same level as last year. Of those that do plan to maintain their spending levels, a significant portion, 35%, expect to use fewer titles. As for newspapers, a similar number, 50%, anticipate keeping their advertising budgets at the same level.
Another telling finding from the survey was that 26% said they plan to shift dollars away from magazines to other media; 21% said they plan to shift dollars away from newspapers. The number one recipient of these redirected budgets was the Internet according to 74% of the respondents.
“Marketers will always have an affinity for print advertising. It’s one of our most valuable targeting and reach-extending media,” said Liodice. “However, in too many instances, the good feelings about print are actually gut feelings,” he added, noting that “gut feelings just don’t cut it anymore. Marketers need print publishers to elevate their attention to marketing accountability – right now.”
Kaline and Liodice concluded their speech by offering 10 “pleas” to the print industry:
1. Help marketers understand print’s cause/effect contribution to generating results and building brands long-term.
2. Provide issue-specific circulation and cumulative data that show how an audience builds over time.
3. Provide reader involvement insights that help marketers understand the unique connections publications have with readers.
4. Tap into the creative energy that permeates editorial pages, and provide advertisers with some new, innovative, branded ways to sponsor publications.
5. Reduce the long lead times to secure space and submit materials to monthly magazines.
6. Find new, cost efficient ways for marketers to test print creative – and to test it more frequently.
7. Raise the creative bar. Put more senior talent on print advertising.
8. Either justify or end the practice of bleed charges.
9. Either justify or end the practice of surcharges for national newspaper advertising in local editions.
10. Get with the digital program! Print media should be the leaders – not the followers – in this exciting realm.
In addition to the keynote by Kaline and Liodice, an entire session at the ANA Print Advertising Forum was dedicated to the hot topic of branded entertainment.
Over 80% of the survey respondents said that their branded entertainment initiatives were focused on commercial television programming. “Print has been slow to embrace this exciting new advertising form,” said Liodice, pointing out that respondents in the survey expressed a strong desire to get involved in editorial development, shared PR initiatives, contests and games within magazines and newspapers.
