Quote 2

"The question is whether we need to push our products or push the marketer as he has problems understanding the online market."
Peter de Mönnink, Chief Strategy and Internet Officer Reed Business Global (In Adformatie).

The Poster Magazine

Imagine a magazine the size of 1.5m by 2m, with no advertising, on display at café's, bars and bookstores, with no strict editorial goal but with a very strong design appeal. This one sheet magazine is called "Is not Magazine" and available in major cities in Australia. It is pasted on outdoor posters sites in Melbourne and Sydney and also available at indoor poster sites in bookstores and bars. The poster magazine can be read like the "wall papers" in China and can be ordered for €17 and will also do great as decoration.

Great creative and venue

This week Amnesty International Belgium launched its end-of-the-year campaign "I save lives "with a major media initiative. Part of the campaign -developed by Air- is this huge poster that has been attached to the scaffolding of the Brussels Palais de Justice. Where to get more attention for human rights than here? The illustration is made of hundreds of signatures and therefore uses the essence of what Amnesty does as part of the creative. A great idea on a unique location. Air developed two other themes on the same idea.

The Power of Print/Posters

On the website of De Standaard -a leading Flemish newspaper- you can choose for a winning cultural poster and win a culture cheque. Of a total of 140 posters 10 were selected by a jury and are now open for voting by everybody.
I'm still experiencing that reducing the message to the essence and reproducing it on a poster is a lot more difficult than doing that on an A4 size advertisement.
This contest therefore demonstrates the Power of Print via the medium posters. It is organised by Prospecta and sponsored by Agfa Graphics.

New strong evidence for magazine effectiveness in media mix variants

When magazines are added to a mix of online and television advertising purchase intention increases with 7% (vs TV and online 5.6%), brand favourability increases with 7.3% compared to 4.5% with TV and online. On other brand metrics as aided brand awareness and advertising awareness the effect of adding magazines is important but less impressive.
Recent research of 32 cross-media campaigns across ten categories by Dynamic Logic (a Millward Brown research company) provides strong evidence for the use of a mix of different media. And the important role magazines play in the effectiveness of advertising investments. Magazine effectiveness represent for example 62 % of the combined effect on brand favourability. The research also shows the limited value of online advertising on the five metrics. The incremental effect of the online investment tops at 22% of the combined effect.
This is the second analysis made by Dynamic Logic, I have reported on earlier research (17 cross-media campaigns) in the Sappi publication Life with Print. Comparing both pieces of research the striking decline of effectiveness of online media becomes apparent. Online advertising' share topped at 38% on the brand favourability metric.
It seems that this new research -based upon more cases- includes the effects of diminished newness and therefore attention of online media.

Company documents remain printed

A survey from EDSF indicates that the budget for printed documents (invoices, bills, statements, explanation of benefits) companies use to communicate with clients modestly increases. Almost 43% of respondents of the survey say that the budget for paper-based communications increases by approx. 10%. This despite the fact that more than half of the companies already make more than fifty percent of their documents available over the Internet. Transactional documents will make increased use of digital colour. Half of the companies will increase the use of colour by 5% or more in the future. A new trend in the use of transactional documents is Transpromo, this is the use of colour on documents as bills and statements and integrating selected promotional offers.
EDSF concludes that electronic delivery will only have a limited impact over the next years as firms will have to address legal and compliance requirements and security/privacy issues.

Mind mapping with Tony Buzan

I was invited by Gino Togni of IMS to attend an interactive session with one of the worlds promoters of mind mapping: Tony Buzan. This 65 years old energetic and gifted Englishman is one of the best presenters on a hugely interesting subject of brain functioning and learning. His full-day workshop covered insights in how our brain functions and also on how we can best describe what we hear or read by presenting it in a mind map. A visual description of the information makes it stay longer in your brain. He did not refer to how that relates to obtaining information via audio-visual, electronic or print media. Probably an interesting subject for a research project.
In the meantime media are already using the technique of mind mapping and showing it in ads to illustrate for example the profile of its radio listeners.