Traditional Media Advertising, In or Out?

Newspaper, radio, and television, they were all the main form of advertising at some point in time. But are they still worth using as an advertising platform in today’s world?

Newspaper Advertising

Newspapers used to be the bread and butter of every household. People used to be dependent on them to get local and global news and other kinds of information. That’s no longer the case as people can now get all the information they need online. Although it was predicted that newspapers were going to go out of style, they seem to have held their ground and survived this technology driven era. Newspaper publishers have adapted to this era by creating online forums where their newspapers are uploaded. Customers are able to get an online subscription and read the daily newspaper from their laptops, phones, and tablets. According to Nielson research, nearly 70% of the U.S. population still read the papers regularly. Below is a chart from Nielson showing the percent of which platforms people read their newspapers on. 

So does this mean newspaper advertising would still be beneficial?

Well, like many things in life, it depends. It depends on what you’re trying to sell, it depends on who your target audience is, and it depends on how big your business is. Local newspapers are a great source of advertising for local brick and mortar or online businesses that are looking to draw a little more traffic to their company, especially if they are on a tight budget. But if you have a large company with a large budget, you could probably find better ways to spend your money on advertising.

Radio Advertising

Radio advertising is as old as time. They became a popular medium to advertise on in the 1920s and remain so to this day. With the creation of new applications that allow users to listen to music anywhere, such as Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify, radio usage has decreased over the years. But not as much as you’d think. According to Neilson, approximately 93% of adults in the U.S. listen to the radio every week. Radio advertising, although thought to be a boring way to promote businesses, is a lot more complicated than you may think. The advertisers are tasked with the challenge of creating a visual in a consumers mind. Their goal is to try and sell you something that you can’t see or touch. Even though it may be slightly more difficult to create a radio ad that is entertaining, once you do it, it will benefit your business and your brand. It’s estimated that for every $1 spent on radio advertising returns $12 in purchasing activity. So if you have the creativity to develop your own radio advertisements, I say go for it!

Television Advertising

Television advertising has gone through a dramatic change over the years. Ads used to be long and full of information on different products or businesses. Now many ads are professionally done with great video and image, they’re a lot of funny ads, emotional ads, and ads that are memorable and good at keeping viewers’ attention. There is even a type of ad referred to as “mini ads” which is approximately thirty seconds long. Although short, they tend to be very good at entertaining the viewer. These commercials are becoming more popular as viewers tend to have a shorter attention span and get very easily distracted. Many of us jump straight to our phones as soon as commercials come on. Are you guilty of that? I know I definitely am!

Nonetheless, television advertising is still very relevant and beneficial. But if you’re going to do it, I suggest that you spend some time figuring out what interests your target audience. Is it comedy? Emotional footage? Good videography and music selection? Once you know what they like and have a flexible budget, you can create the perfect commercial to draw in their attention.

All in all, we can see that most media advertising methods are still effective, some more than others and should not be written off by businesses just yet!

P.s Here are some of my favorite TV commercials from this year so far!

Walmart Epic Movie Car Commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whpJBY5W7xo

We Believe- The Best Men Can Be (Gillette) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0

Tide Super bowl - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIW3l-ENHdA&t=8s

Alexa loses her voice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJETzUVSlNs