digital ad. Other studies involving brain scans
have found that physical ads activate different
parts of the brain than digital ads, and viewing
them “involves more emotional processing, which
is important for memory and brand associations.”
3. Print ads last longer
Imagine if someone kept seeing your Facebook ads
until they decided to delete their account. Or they
kept finding your ad on Google until they decided
to stop using Google. It sounds crazy, but print ads
last until the content they’re attached to no longer
has value.
When someone plops a magazine on their counter,
desk, or coffee table, your ads stay there until the
entire magazine goes in the recycling bin—or to
someone else’s desk.
“It’s a physical product, it takes time to arrive at a
person’s house, it’s there for a long time so there
are many impressions, and there’s a pass-along and
an audience reach that accumulates over at least
two weeks,” says Andy Blau, former CBO of Time,
Inc.
While you can quickly see the results of your digital
ads, print ads take longer to reach their maximum
value as they pass from hand to hand, home to
home, and office to office. The American Marketing
Association says, “[print ads are] worth it in the
end because of print’s longer shelf life and higher
potential for reverberations beyond the initial
reader.”
4. Readers engage differently with physical content
Even bland ads still benefit from one of the biggest
advantages of print: people subscribe to magazines
based on their interests. And the ads are part
of that, because they align with the rest of the
content and add to the magazine’s value.
In other words: magazine subscribers actually want
to read the ads. People read magazines to get
better at their jobs and explore their passions, and
the ads are part of that experience, rather than an
interruption.
“With print, I have to be interested enough in the
totality of the content of a magazine to subscribe
to it,” says Britt Fero, founder of PB&. “Online, you
can find me alone, looking at
me solely
through my
demographic, but when
I’m looking at a
magazine, that matters much less. The way people
consume print, it just doesn’t work the same way
as digital.”
When you’re reading a Christian lifestyle magazine,
you’re not going to see ads for power tools you
were just looking at on Amazon. Every ad is going
to contribute to the type of Christian lifestyle
portrayed by the rest of the magazine.
“People are in different mental spaces when
they choose to engage with a printed magazine
versus digital content,” Britt says. ”What does the
reader want to get out of those five minutes that
he spends with that particular title? This is really
where, in marketing, you can actually add value to
a medium because the reader is looking for a very
specific kind of content anyway, versus just talking
about your brand.”
Print advertising still has advantages
When you pick up a magazine, sometimes the
advertising section is labeled outright. Other
times, it’s more discreet, and ads are peppered
throughout each article. Either way, magazines
give advertisers the space to turn their ad into a
visual story, not just a one-line product pitch. And
the best print ads relate to and interact with the
surrounding content in such a way that they add to
the experience of reading the magazine.
Digital ads are great for delivering quick results
with lots of data. But if you want to penetrate
your market, print ads should probably be part of
your strategy. By physically placing your brand in
people’s hands, you create lasting impressions that
engage your audience in meaningful ways.
www.slyoumag.com | July-August 2019
SL-YOU | Business, People & Lifestyle 37