I went through the results of these design awards, and found some beautifully designed ads. Like this one for Oryza rice, using an intriguing landscape to communicate rice recipes. The Suddeutsche Zeitung, uses the analogy of tree rings to refer to the year-in-review issue.
I sat in a presentation some weeks ago about the effectiveness of newspapers. InBev, BrandScience and Nielsen presented their findings on the ROI of newspaper advertising. All of them used econometric models to demonstrate the value of newspapers (otherwise they would not have been invited to do their presentation). The presentation pointed out some stimulating data. BrandScience used a database of 200 cases including newspaper campaigns, the average Revenue Return on Investment ranked as follows: inserts topped the list followed by newspapers, magazines, radio, online, direct mail, outdoor, television sponsorship and television.
A case study on the support for the Jupiler Blue brand showed also the superior ROI of the combination of newspaper and outdoor advertising. The result mentioned a poor 8,8 % - 9,8% contribution of advertising to total sales of the brand.
In driving back to the office I thought about two things: one, where does the creativity of the ads gets into the equation? What is the role of the Cannes Advertising Festival and all other creativity awards, when everything can be modelled without taking into account creativity. In a world of product parity, creativity and design can call for premium prices and consumer interest. And two, when advertising contributes less than 10% to total sales, is that because we do not spent enough time, money and energy on creativity and design? The jury of the Effie Awards will be able to judge whether we have used the right mix of econometric modelling and creativity. If not we probably should be more humble about our role as communication specialists.
EMS, the European-wide media study revealed last week the results of its latest survey. EMS researches the affluent and influential people in Europe and is a valuable balance to many single-media, single-country studies. The study confirms what so many individual surveys have indicated: print media are steady or slightly in decline. On average pan-regional titles were read by 25,3% of the EMS sample, which is a decline of 1.1% compared to last years figures. Individual titles had very little movements, with the free newspapers increasing their average issue readership (AIR).
The EMS survey makes a distinction between the Top 13% and Top 3% (EMS Select) in its sample. The more affluent the higher the readership for print and reach of television. AIR for pan-European (News and Business) print was at respectively 7.2% and 15,3%. Reach of pan-European TV (News and Business channels) was 42,7% for EMS and 53,8% for EMS Select. Next year digital usage will be added to the survey. This will offer an even more complete view of media consumption of this exclusive and influential group of people. Especially in B-to-B and corporate marketing this survey is relevant as C-suits (which are often the target audience in B-to-B) are among the target group of EMS.
Earlier this year I wrote about the correlation between the sales of e-books and hard copy books. The well-know New York Times technology columnist and "Missing Manuel Book" - writer David Pogue wrote in June an article on the this subject. His perspective has to do with copyright and pirated use of e-books and fits the discussion that creative work will sooner or later become freely available via the Internet. Paul Krugman wrote an interesting but much discussed article on this model already used by the Grateful Dead.
In considering free e-books Pogue refers to three possible relations that might exist: giving away e-books for free will boost sales of the print edition, selling e-books is the only legitimate way to buy electronic versions and e-books will kill income of printed books. Pogue refers to two interesting variables: the awareness of the author (less-known authors supposedly benefit more from the free exposure and attract new readers of the printed version), and the genre of the book (do you read science-fiction on a screen?). One of the people who reacted to the story was Kevin Kelly who suggested to have a test with one of Pogue's books. His prediction is that his e-books will not be duplicated as much as imaged and elevate, or at least not depress sales of the print version. Pogue's publishing company started the test this month and I'm curious to see whether the results will confirm what the National Academies Press concluded earlier this year.
Newspapers are probably the biggest losers of the growth of the Internet. Advertisers shift to the cheaper and more accountable Internet advertising possibilities and readers value the speed and the interactivity of Internet news. Zenith Optimedia expects that by 2010 newspapers will take 23,7% of all ad spend (in 2006 this was 28,4%). By contrast, the Internet will represent 13,6% in 2010 (6,8% in 2006). Research among 250 newspapers in the USA shows the paradox newspapers are facing. The Internet offers them a platform to compete with television and radio in bringing video news and generate the related (lower) advertising revenues. On the other hand providing news for the Internet places heavy burdens on the quality of the journalistic work. Andrew Keen has written an excellent book on what he calls the Cult of the amateur. The web does not allow for in-depth, high quality news analysis. Integrating editorial teams for the paper and the web version of the newspaper has been the first step newspapers have taken. But the future of these already downsized teams depends on the capacity to attract advertising money for the web-based newspaper.
The contradiction in this situation is that Google, the exponent of the Internet, demonstrated the value of newspaper advertising in conjunction with Internet advertising. Media are connected: newspaper ads drive consumers to the web. The Google research showed the effectiveness of newspaper advertising but also the effectiveness of the combination: of those who researched a product they saw in the newspaper, 67% did so online.
Advertising budgets will continue to be in transition between the different media untill there is a new equilibrium. However I'm not expecting to happen to newspapers, what MTV believed to happen to radio when they aired at their launch the clip "Video killed the radio star".
