Ranking advertising spend within advertising and media platforms is one indicator as to the health of that medium. Although adspend across the print media is, on average down, local newspapers are still on the up.
General business confidence is down across all sectors but local press is bucking the trend and performing well. Considering that the general mood amongst advertisers and marketers is ‘work harder with less advertising budgets’, many marketers are looking for ‘deals’ and it seems that some media owners are willing to comply to get the sale.
“According to figures on Adindex, February 2014 to January 2015, adspend, on average, across the entire print industry is down by 3.9% over a two year period with trade magazines bearing the brunt at -13.4%,” says Gill Randall, CEO of SPARK Media. “The only exception to this rule is community or local print which is up by 6.8%.”
As budgets shrink, advertising needs to work harder in media that offers better ROI (Return on Investment). Again, adspend is a good indicator as to which mediums are getting the best results.
There are good reasons for this, says Randall. As consumers have less money to spend, planning of shopping trips becomes even more prolific. ROOTS research has shown that people plan their shopping by utilising inserts to research specials placed within their local community newspapers.
Because of this, inserts for example, are an easy medium for consumers to remove and either take with them into the store or compare prices against other retailers. This is clearly reflected in the adspend SOV (Share of Voice) with a 17% increase across the entire medium. Local press fared even better. VFD (Verified Free Delivery) SOV increased by 21% and sold community paper inserts SOV increased by a massive 50%.
Even though these Adex billings are based on rate card and do not reflect any discounts that may have been negotiated, trends can easily be identified.
“Consumers today live busy lives,” says Gill. “Convenience is the key for them as they actively seek out ways to save time and make their lives easier. Providing localised information in a format that’s easy to refer to and that is relevant to consumers, is part of the advertising channels that we offer through SPARK Media.”
