How Do I Maximize My Print Budget?
by Millward Brown
Magazine advertising can work more cost effectively than TV, and using magazines in the media mix can lead to a media-multiplier effect.
There is a strong correlation between the readers’ interest in the product field and print advertising impact. If you work in a low-interest category, you must use creativity to draw the reader into your ad.
Exposure to magazine advertising builds gradually. The pattern of readership builds differently for different types of publications. This needs to be acknowledged in media planning and monitoring.
Print advertising wears out — the ability of a single execution to deliver branded advertising memories decays with further exposure to the same execution. Campaigns that use multiple executions will minimize the impact of creative wear out.
Context - The Media LandscapeThere are two key aspects which contribute to how the different media channels work:
- Control — the extent to which the audience can choose to pay more, or less, attention to the advertising.
- Mood — the mindset in which the media is approached — is it active and goal seeking (what we might term “leaning forward”), or is it more passive (what we might term “leaning back”).
In considering print copy, we need to bear in mind that print is a medium which is actively consumed — the reader has control over what they are looking at and is able to either stop and read an ad, or simply turn the page.
Magazines: A Cost Effective MediaOn average, magazine executions work as efficiently as TV in generating visibility. The average Awareness Index (our measure of the branded memorability of an ad) for TV and for print is about the same. However, print exposures cost considerably less than TV, indicating that on an exposure for exposure basis, magazine advertising can work much more cost effectively than TV.
Research we conducted for the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) across 113 brands confirmed this.
Based on this analysis, on a dollar for dollar basis, magazines deliver higher advertising awareness than television. The second part of the analysis looked at sales over a three year time frame, and correlated purchase intent with media awareness. The analysis tracked awareness and intent on a weekly basis. The proportion of brands showing a statistically significant relationship between a change in advertising awareness and a corresponding change in purchase intent was 61 percent.
Among those cases where we found a significant relationship, we identified the source of awareness that was driving the change. We discovered that a combination of media — television and magazines working together — was most strongly related to positive changes in purchase intent, clear evidence of the media-multiplier effect.
Download the full report to read more (pdf, 567 kb)