HBR says marketers returning to traditional media + marketing
There’s nothing like an article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), Why Marketers Are Returning to Traditional Media, to make a case for adding niche magazines into the mix.
Consumers have become digitally numb
An article covering the 28th Edition of The CMO Survey. noting that in 2021 and 2022, marketers indeed said they were returning to traditional media in all forms, and acknowledged the new pain points of a mature digital marketing ecosystem.
The CMO Survey is the industry standard that shows where marketing is heading. It measures the opinions of marketing leaders to predict the future of markets, and, according to its website, “it is the longest-running non-commercial survey for and about the marketing field.”
The need for marketers to break through the digital ad clutter was pressing, HBR said, as consumers become “digitally numb.”
“They report frustration and negative brand association with digital advertising clutter that prevents them from reading an article, watching a video, or browsing a website.
“For example, a HubSpot survey found that 57% of participants disliked ads that played before a video, and 43% didn’t even watch them. As a result, marketers are looking for a way to cut through the noise.”
Unlike the CMO Survey, Hubspot services companies of all sizes.
Hyped returns and fickle algorithms
The report explains that today, ROI for print and other traditional media is now competitive.
“Indeed, research by Ebiquity suggests that traditional media channels—led by TV, radio, and print—outperform digital channels in terms of reach, attention, and engagement relative to costs. This performance differential is amplified as online advertising costs have increased, especially when accounting for impression, click, and conversion fraud. ”
Ebiquity provides media investment analysis, helping brand owners increase returns from their media investments, and is considered an independent source.
HBR also noted that “marketers are also becoming skeptical of the hyped returns of digital media because the platforms control both the advertising inventory and its effectiveness measurement.
“This has raised credibility concerns and the worry that digital advertising may be far less effective than reported.”
So what has changed in 2024?
Certainly not frustration among big marketers with big tech.
Budgets shifting into marketing
March 2024 CMO survey concluded that big brands in the study also shifted spend into marketing, although with considerable confusion about what marketing actually means, and what the KPIs should now be.
Niche media often fall under the radar in these studies. However, they are in the catbird’s seat to supply marketing options.
While not everyone agrees on what marketing means, it can include event participation and sponsorship, the creation of owned media, pay-to-play magazines , podcasts, email newsletters, and even morning TV shows.
Some separate publications such as annual Faces or Leaders magazines, provide turn-key pay-to-play print options that meet marketing aims.
Other publishers sell news sponsorships, exclusive email sends, and other products that fall under the “marketing” budget.
In short, anything that can engage the right audience in compelling, authentic, and tractable ways, and looks more like content than an ad, attracts more interest today.
Niche media in the catbird’s seat
Niche media play an increasingly important role for companies lucky enough to fall into a niche with access to a publisher who can be a true marketing partner.
These publishers have great email and social audiences, events and webinars to boost marketing efforts. Their high-quality print and online products boost these campaigns.
Marketing, it turns out, is complicated, so providing unique, optimized packages of print and digital simplifies the job for marketers.
The success of Industry Dive, is based on creating content marketing informed by data sets, such as email clicks and opens. It is designed to pinpoint niche audiences with big purchasing power and the creation of marketing, along with ads.
Dive’s 26 + magazines and trade shows can build relationships and an owned audience faster and more powerfully than using Facebook or Google, the big-tech companies.
Another example is, ParentsCanada, which runs on a primarily content-marketing revenue model that can produce four kinds of video content for national brands and then distribute it across email, social, and web channels. The brands keep the videos for their own distribution and build their audiences, too. No other media option can supply this kind of engagement.
While CanadaParents is online-only, the statewide publisher announced it is increasing the size of its Community Leaders annual magazine in 2024 from 250 pages to 500, based on an increase in demand for marketing-style rather than pure advertising products.
