We invited Harry Simpson, the Head of Advertising at The Telegraph, to write a guest blog on the benefits of print advertising.
Working for a leading national news provider, it’s not that uncommon to hear people claiming that “print is dead”. The rise in tablets and smartphones over the decade means that news and information is more accessible on the go, and therefore people have changed their traditional habits when consuming media.
The UK is currently on course to become the first country in the world where spending on digital advertising outstrips all other traditional formats combined - making up just over £8billion pounds of a £16billion spend. Big numbers indeed, but it’s not all bad news for good old fashioned paper.
Print advertising revenues are estimated to stay flat at £2.5billion for 2018; that’s not a small chunk of change by any standards. This shows that advertisers believe print still commands huge respect when trying to sell their products and reach their target audience.
Why is that?
Readers trust the ads: Nielsen (the global advertising measurement company) finds that advertisements in newspapers continue to be among the most trusted forms of advertising. Newspapers provide an environment that offers clout. Both in print and digitally, newspapers are taken seriously – and so are the ads.
Readers want the ads: Newspapers are one of the few places where readers want and expect advertisements. They are part of the content. In many media, consumers go out of their way to avoid/skip ads because they don’t want them.
The ads work: Research finds newspaper readers across devices can experience a 13% increase in brand recall. A real incentive for advertisers to buy across a brand.
Engaging content, engaging ads: On media engagement, print newspapers scored highest. Newspaper Web sites came in 34% higher than average – scoring higher than radio, magazine, Internet, and billboards.
The message here is clear. Traditional print advertising used in tandem with the right digital formats will produce an engaging and successful campaign. Having a trusted brand with market leading platforms helps too. Digital may be the present and the future, but print is by no means history.