Traditional Advertising is Not “Dead”

zombie in a crowd

Yep, you read that right. Traditional advertising is not dead. In a recent article, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) stated that traditional advertising – long predicted to have died a slow, agonizing death – is headed for growth for the first time in a decade. Pause the zombie apocalypse and consider this: Companies that sell primarily online are rediscovering the benefits of traditional media including television, radio, and print.

Whether you work in an agency, corporation, or nonprofit organization, it’s likely that you’ve moved advertising dollars away from traditional channels to digital channels.

The HBR projects that B2C consumer-facing companies will increase their spend on traditional advertising as much as 10% in the next 12 months. If that makes you shake your head in disbelief, consider this: Companies that earn 100% of their sales online are leading the return to traditional marketing and advertising methods.

 

Traditional Advertising is Experiencing Increased Engagement

According to Marketing Sherpa, the most trusted advertising formats are all traditional. Because of this, companies with jaded buyers can benefit by using traditional advertising to build credibility and trust with their target audiences. Another encouraging discovery is that traditional media channels – TV, radio, print – deliver better advertising recall than their digital counterparts.

 

Television Advertising Excels at Driving Reach and Generating Awareness

While traditional media channels like television lack some of the measurement capabilities of digital tactics, they deliver quantifiable results when used at the top of the marketing funnel. The Forbes Business Council published a recent article about the benefits of combining television advertising with digital tactics. Here are their top recommendations:

Lead with TV ads to increase ROI on your paid search campaigns. Reaching a broad audience on TV increases that likelihood of people then searching your brand or product name via mobile device. Over time, this combination (TV + paid search) will deliver prospects with higher intent to your website.

Use television ads to drive traffic to your website, then close the loop with digital ads. The cycle might look something like this:

  • Prospect sees TV ad
  • Prospect keys search into phone or tablet
  • Prospect sees Paid Search ad
  • Prospect hits website through PPC ad
  • Prospect becomes part of general brand Remarketing pool
  • Prospect is served a Remarketing ad (banners or video)
  • Prospect puts item in shopping cart but does not purchase
  • Prospect becomes part of specific product Retargeting pool
  • Prospect is served Retargeting ads, possibly with limited time offer
  • Prospect receives automated Abandoned Cart SMS or email message
  • Prospect ultimately converts or is “expired” from the Retargeting pool

television broadcast color bars
Television Advertising is Evolving: Addressable TV, CTV, OTT

The evolution of television viewing has included many phases. Think about television shifting from programs in black-and-white to color, from broadcast to cable, and from cable to satellite. Television advertising, for decades the largest category of advertising in terms of dollars spent, now has the technology to target specific consumer segments in the same way as online retailers and social media platforms have been doing for years.

As the way we use “TV” evolves and expands to include people’s ability to stream TV content on a variety of devices at any time of day, we encourage you to consider options like Addressable TV, CTV, and OTT. Viewers watch what they want, whenever they want. In this Think with Google article, Addressable TV advertising is highlighted for its ability to show different ads to different households even if the inhabitants are watching the same program. With the help of addressable advertising, advertisers can move beyond large-scale traditional TV ad buys, to focus on relevance and impact.

Addressable (linear) TV targets ads through set-top providers or Video on Demand (VOD) inventory based on household-level data and segmentation. These ads are served during TV programming primarily through set-top providers (like Comcast or Time Warner) or Video on Demand (VOD) inventory. For example, by using first and third-party household-level data, an automobile company might advertise a minivan to a household with two adults and young children, and a luxury vehicle to a household with affluent empty nesters. Addressable linear TV allows marketers to reach specific household audiences based on their respective household data, allowing marketers to focus on consumers instead of focusing on programming.

CTV stands for Connected TV. CTV is a device that connects to a television to support video content streaming. Different types of CTVs include Xbox, PlayStation, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and more.

OTT stands for Over the Top. Over-the-top (OTT) is the delivery of TV/video content directly from the internet with no cable subscription. Different types of OTT services include Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Mass media and networks are also launching their own OTT services such as Disney+ and NBC’s Peacock. The rise of CTV and OTT has led to the phenomenon known as “cord-cutting” where customers are canceling their traditional cable in favor of streaming or VOD formats.

With OTT and CTV advertising, you can reach viewers beyond the reach of traditional Linear TV (i.e. cable, satellite, and antenna). The rise of OTT and CTV viewership provides more ways for you to engage with your target audience at the right time.

 

young woman listening to radio

Radio Advertising Delivers Unmatched Frequency and Affordability

Are you familiar with the Rule of 7? There’s a mantra in advertising that states a potential customer needs to be exposed to a brand – or that brand’s advertising – at least 7 times before they will make a purchase. Radio advertising delivers cost-effective reach coupled with demographic targeting and reliable ad frequency. It can help you reach the 7 exposures benchmark faster, especially when paired with other advertising tactics.

Running radio ads can add momentum to your paid search campaign, ultimately increasing your website traffic and in-store traffic. Radio ads can also drive listeners to your website or social media to take advantage of digital promotions. To reach radio audiences on social media, include your social media handles in your ad scripts. Radio production costs are generally cheaper than creating a TV spot or a video for social media. To engage your audience, pair quality copywriting with a compelling voiceover.

 

printing pressCombine Print Marketing with Digital Ads to Improve Campaign Effectiveness

When you think about print advertising, you might envision someone with gray hair encountering ads while reading the daily newspaper. However the audience for print advertising and marketing does include younger and more affluent audiences as well. According to Gardner Business Media, these statistics hold true in 2022:

  • 95% of people under the age of 25 read magazines weekly
  • 92% of people age 18-25 prefer the ease of reading print communication vs. digital content
  • 77% of consumers show higher levels of recall for print materials vs. digital content
  • 70% of households with an income above $100k are newspaper readers

When creating an integrated marketing and advertising strategy, carve out budget dollars for print. Print ads drive stronger brand recall than digital. Print materials are also more trusted by consumers when making purchase decisions.  Additional reasons why you should adding newspaper advertising to your marketing plan can be found in this recent Media Venue blog post.

 

Consider Media Venue Your Traditional Media Partner

Are you ready to improve your reach, brand awareness, and advertising recall across your target audience? Using traditional media – TV, radio, print – can boost your eCommerce sales. Next month, we’ll take a closer look at additional traditional media options including live events, direct mail, and outdoor advertising.

Consider Media Venue your trusted partner for Traditional Media. We’d love to talk with you about your business goals and identify solutions to deliver results within your budget. Contact VP Cassie Rogers to book a consultation today.

 

About Our Blogger

As Media Venue’s Digital Marketing Manager, Christine Long has over 15 years of experience planning and executing integrated campaigns combining online advertising, content marketing (social media, blogging), email marketing, audience segmentation, promotions, and live events. Researching and writing about best practices in digital marketing allows her to utilize these practices to serve her clients.

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