Advertising is one of those pesky things that you can’t escape from, no matter how hard you try. The average person in North America is inundated with at least 3,000 ads per day.
Some are easier to ignore than others. For example, the poster attached to the side of a bus might catch your eye for a moment, but you don’t have to interact with it. The same can’t be said for advertising in newspapers where you have to physically turn the page to bypass an ad.
Traditionally, newspapers and advertisers have enjoyed a special relationship. Businesses could reach a large segment of the population through the mass circulation newspapers readership and the paper depended on the dollars brought in as advertising revenue.
For many years, there was no better way to get one’s message out than to have it printed in the paper. If you were looking for a job or a place to live, you went to the newspaper and checked the classifieds.
But advancements in technology changed all this, just like everything else. Suddenly, there were new ways of reaching a bigger audience through the Internet or a more focused audience on cable television.
What better way to sell golf equipment than to advertise to people watching the Golf Channel or to shill sit-down baths and denture adhesives to the daytime Game Show Network crowd?
Sure, you could change the channel as easily as you could turn the page of a newspaper, but chances are you won’t. The show will come back on after the commercial break but if you don’t turn the page, you’re stuck looking at that ad.
Some have argued that an over-saturation of advertisements has led to people fleeing from newspapers in pursuit of uninterrupted news.
But why should a reader get subjected to advertising that he or she finds unnecessary? If you only shop at Loblaws and not Loeb, those ads and flyers will do nothing more than create padding for the hamster’s cage.
Popular advertising websites like Craigslist and Monster.com have cost newspaper publishers millions of dollars in lost classified advertising revenue, so much so that some news media have started to incorporate their advertising competitors to their own sites. The blue logo for Working.com present on every CanWest paper website is prepared to display thousands of classified ads at your command.
The Internet has become the news outlet of choice for the 18-34 demographic, also known as the advertisers’ bread and butter. So what choice do advertisers have than to go where the audience is?
As the Internet and television continue to fragment and find new markets, they become amazing options for advertisers to get in bed with.
Reading newspapers online has become the so-called ‘wave of the future’ and marketers know that consumers are more responsive when they feel like they are the ones calling the shots.
That colourful banner ad at the top of your screen will take you to an advertiser, but only if you want it to.
Even coupons are jumping ship. Last year, American marketing companies began offering digital deals through mobile phones instead of newspapers.
Traditional print newspaper circulation may be on the decline because papers are no longer the go-to outlet for businesses dealing with automobiles, financial services, or travel.
However, newspapers are not completely dead yet. Losing competition for ad space should make it easier for smaller businesses to focus their advertising to the population that is still picking up the print version of the paper.
So don’t think that you’re getting away from the lure of advertising by not flipping through a newspaper or the weekly Flyer Force. Marketing companies are crafty and some papers are willing to get creative.
The free daily newspaper, Metro, often gives prime advertising space on it’s front page. That way, a business can get you without even having to open the paper.
They will find you, they know what you want, and they will give it to you.