Web advertising builds brands ... and I believe it

OPA study demonstrates Web advertising builds brands :: BtoB Magazine

A recent study by the Online Publishers Association (performed by comScore, and called “The Silent Click: Building Brands Online”, but not available until June 25) indicates that online advertising builds brands.

Now you might think ... "Hmmm, that's not too surprising. A study by the Online Publishers Association shows that there are deep benefits to online advertising." But, I believe it - and more than just from a potentially biased survey - but from real-life experience. At my last job I initiated online banner advertising, and advertising through behavior-based advertising networks. Not too surprisingly people who were exposed to our ads were exposed a lot (and for very little $$ relative to traditional media). The results? When ad recall was evaluated across media (TV, radio, newspaper, out-of-home, and online), the TV ads had the highest proven recall. But only a bit behind were our very simple and cheap banner ads. There was a huge space beteen those two media and the next (newspaper).

The lesson? Online media is a very important part of a branding effort, and must align tightly with all other media, including:

• TV,
• PR,
• Radio,
• Newspaper,
• Out-of-home,
• Etc..

Another one begins to bite the dust

The National Post will stop publishing their Monday edition throughout the summer. Will anyone notice? Will Tuesday be next? Followed by Wednesday ...

Their competition doesn't seem to mind:

• The Globe & Mail bragged about it,
  
• CBC.ca reported on it,
• CTV.ca didn't miss it.

I feel bad for the old traditional media. It is a dead business model. But, it is dying a slow and painful death.

Boston Globe choking

As evidence that newspapers face an unfortunate but certain end ... The New York Times which owns the Boston Globe is talking about shutting down the Boston Globe.

Other newspapers that recently have, gone bankrupt, closed or have made noise that they are drastically cutting back and could possibly get out of the print business include:

• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• Tucson Citizen
• Ann Arbor News
  
• Miami Beach SunPost
• Rocky Mountain News
• Halifax Daily News
• Tribune Company (owner of The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, & The Los Angeles Times, plus a whole bunch of other things)
• Minneapolis Star Tribune
• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• The Philadelphia Daily News
  
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Sun-Times Media Group (owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, & dozens of suburban newspapers, etc.)

There must be a good comprehensive list like this somewhere. Have you seen it?

Reuters reports that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer may shift to online-only

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer may become the first large newspaper publisher to dump the newsprint and become e-only. Reuters reports that the newspaper's print edition may be shutting down.

Hey - Winnipeg Free Press and Ottawa Citizen ... are you paying attention?

Everything on table as Winnipeg Free Press looks to cut costs

CBC reports (online) that the Winnipeg Free Press is working hard to cut costs. The poor old newspaper industry sure is in rough shape:

• Many of them are leveraged out the wazoo as they were bought with enormous debt (suddenly Conrad Black looks like he might have been smarter to get locked up in jail, then saddled with a newspaper empire)
• People are going online to get timely news that doesn't get your fingers dirty and smelly, and not picking up an outdated paper
• Advertising revenue is plumetting as advertisers chop budgets and look for better ways to get their messages out.

As one comment on the CBC site says:

"This is classic Darwin, the Media version.
Years ago, television killed radio and radio adapted.
Recently, digital cameras killed print film and Kodak adapted (barely).
Today, the Internet is killing print media, and print media had better adapt."

Ottawa Citizen removing more newspaper boxes

CBC.ca reports that the Ottawa Citizen is removing all of their newspaper boxes. Are they doing this because people really don't like to buy newspapers from a box anymore ... or because people really don't like to buy newspapers anymore?

One of the comments to the story is:

Why go to the trouble to remove the boxes? Because they're probably worth more as scrap metal to the publisher, than as the revenue generating devices they were originally designed to be.

Trends for 2009: #14. Traditional Print Media will continue to crater

I'm certainly not the first to forecast that newspaper and magazines are in rapid decline. According to eMarketer. The newspaper business model is broken and advertisers are bailing,

eMarketer forecasts that newspaper ad revenue will decline 16.4% in 2008, and dramtically further by 2012. On top of that circulation for newspapers continues to deteriorate as people hit the internet in greater numbers than ever before to get news, opinions, classifieds, and entertainment that are both timelier and free. Even worse for Traditional Print media - the high costs of production and distribution is not coming down.

I used to love the newspaper. Was there nothing better on a Saturday morning then to sip a hot coffee and thumb through the pages of the paper? Now there is. I brew my morning latte, and hop online for 20 minutes. I haven't had a subscription for years. In fact, this week I actually picked up a paper that someone else had left on a table in a Starbucks. That's the first one I've touched in months. The ironic thing is that I was attracted by a headline the trumpeted "TV Networks Closing Stations" (that will be a trend for another day).

Another piece of evidence came out this week when Google canceled it's print ad program. Google started the program in 2006, and by 2009 had 800 US newspapers participating in it. Reading between the lines, even Google couldn't make a buck in the dying print world.

So, what's a Marketer to do in 2009?

• Look carefully at the price and performance of all media - this includes the dying print world, the new interactive world, and everything in between. You never know ... you might find that for your particular product or service a newspaper ad still outperforms an interactive campaign. But, more than likely, that just means that you aren't yet doing the right things with your interactive campaign.
  
• Be sure that you have an exit plan for Traditional Print media. There are lots of newspapers going bankrupt and magazines that are shutting down. If you aren't doing interactive advertising, start now before it is too late for you to get the skills you will need to have to market well with new media.
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.