DEAD MEDIA. UNLESS YOU BRING IT BACK TO LIFE.

I’ve been doing this advertising/media planning/buying/marketing thing in one way or another for 20 years now. A career I stumbled upon as a Finance student at St. John's University, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business after answering a classified ad (Google it kids) for an ad agency in Manhattan that paid $10…maybe $12/hour. I don’t remember exactly how much now…but it was good money for a college kid, and it was the sort of “serious” office job that would look good on my resume (up to that point it was all comic books and sports cards), and get my parents off my back for a little while. At that agency some very gracious and smart folks (that I will be eternally grateful for) taught me a lot about the business in a very short period of time, and it provided a fantastic start.

Twitter made it easier to connect to thought leaders and connect to articles and studies. YouTube provided access to speeches about the business. This is where, especially towards the end of the 2000’s, I started hearing about the various media that was supposedly dead or dying. At some point or another radio, display, out of home, and print all had been declared dead. Other digital options, OTT, social, experiential and gaming all meant to be dancing on the graves of their predecessors.

Let’s dive into some of these supposedly dead media properties…

·     RADIO/AUDIO – According to the Nielsen and the Radio Advertising Bureau radio still reaches 86% of the audience (Age 18+) and people listen to an average of 11.1 hours of radio every week. 55% of Gen Z listens to AM/FM radio each day. Naysayers will say “Nay Peter” (because they’re naysayers), a lot of this is passive listening, and while some of that is certainly true, that means that you (agency/brand) expect the media to carry the water for you.

As with most media, the amount of customized messaging and programming that you work towards will provide the greatest return on investment. From a programming POV, if you’re a CPG or any supermarket product, chances are that the car is the last place a person is in on their way to go shopping. How valuable is that time for purchase intent or trial? Significant. Also, programming on talk radio or podcasts can provide the attentive audience with messaging that can be customized to the programming in which it appears.

Turns out creative copywriting still matters. Think of the “Real Men of Genius”, “Most Interesting Man in the World”, “NYRA” campaigns. Those stood out from everything else because they were entertaining, surprising, and made people smile. If you’re a marketer that likes measurability, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart, and Audacy, all provide digital options and dashboards to give you that peace of mind. The opportunity in radio/audio is huge, as long as you’re willing to concede that you shouldn’t fill your spots with price points, and laundry lists of products that make people’s eyes roll to the back of their heads. Even Gary Vaynerchuk recently said “If you’re really thinking about traditional [advertising] means. I think drive-time radio is a more interesting dollar spent.”

"Shot on iPhone" Out of Home Campaign

·     OUT OF HOME – I have a confession to make. I love out of home. Something about that blank canvas that provides the opportunity to do something striking. There are problems though:

It’s usually expensive relative to the perception of what you’re getting. $20k- $40k - $80k for one 4-week billboard flight? Is it worth it? In itself? Maybe not. But marketers should look at billboards the same way they look at Super Bowl commercials (hear me out). Not many CMO’s would pay $7 Million for a :30 second Super Bowl spot if all they got was that :30 second spot. Instead, the Super Bowl commercial is now a 3-month marketing campaign. The month before is the tease, then the month of the game is when the spot gets leaked through various media channels, and then the post-game glow where the spot can be seen in various media. It creates buzz and conversation. To a company where $80k is a big budget (and that’s most companies), treat a NYC or LA wallscape the same way. Build a pre-launch buzz by leaking some creative concepts, enjoy the audience you reach when the board is up, and then use the post time by using, for instance, time-lapse videos to promote the posts on social. (Just look at all the added impressions from the various 3D/Anamorphic videos that Nike and various video companies got in the past year.)

The creative. This is where strong copy is essential. You have a split second to make an impression. The success of brands like Spotify, Manhattan Mini Storage, McDonalds in the out of home space show that creativity is possible. Be concise, be surprising, be different.

Fight your inner urge marketers. I have had clients or stakeholders with whom I have a wonderful relationship…but when it comes to creative, we have wars. The urge to squeeze every bit of information into their advertising is killing the response. Less is more with out of home. And if it’s less + clever, that’s even better.

Overall, as long as the execution is thought out, and compelling, you can use the content from the billboard to drive engagement and sales.

·     DISPLAY – This one is a little bit more difficult for me to defend. Between the rise of ad blockers, fraud, banner blindness, viewability and just general ad fatigue, it’s easy to see how the argument can be made against display ads. I mean, how many times have you clicked on a display ad on purpose? Plus…and here’s the big part of this…banner ad creative is almost entirely shitty. It’s like we’ve given up on making anything creative because of the limitations of the 300x250 square that’s supposed to house something inspirational.

This is where adding in a social/shareable content in the ads helps success. Think of Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign or McDonald’s “Our Food, Your Questions” campaign which used digital display ads to promote transparency and answer customers’ questions about their food.

McDonald's "Our Food, Your Questions" campaign

For smaller companies and local businesses, creative, and copywriting becomes even more significant. Think of a clean, striking ad with a single message targeted at the users, similar to the AirBnB model. Use beautiful imagery, and minimal messaging to entice customers and increase brand perception.

Overall, our POV on display is that it’s a branding vehicle to support other initiatives. A second or third-screen option. If it is meant to lead your marketing strategy, you would be much better off creating custom content, and push it out through social channels.

·     PRINT – According to Karen Walker (operating partner at Goldman and former CMO of Intel and Cisco) "Print advertising is in decline, and it's not just because of digital. The way people consume media has changed, and print simply isn't as effective as it used to be."

The psychology of this is the important part to take note of. People just aren’t consuming information in a way that is print friendly. The medium has become a niche, and it can be very effective as such, but the costs associated with it are still treating it as a marquee platform, and outside of a few publications, the value isn’t there. The days of building a brand using a print-first strategy are over. So how do we effectively use print?

As always, there are creative ways to get attention. GE’s buying out the entire NY Times provided content for the brand to discuss on social media and other platforms.

GE "NY Times" campaign

Luxury brands can still find customers in highly targeted publications. Magazines are trending towards coffee table style books that are kept in homes more as a conversation starter than information gathering.

Fashion brands still use various magazines to get the attention of tastemakers and decision makers.

But if you’re a smaller brand, and you feel the absolute need to use print, consider pursuing niche publications targeted to your specific audience, and more importantly, work towards getting edit along with your ad to secure more engagement. Perhaps even consider designing and printing your own print publication and distribute regionally. You might be surprised at the costs vs. a single print ad in a publication. 

All of these supposedly dead media vehicles provide an opportunity to do something surprising and engaging for your customers. The question to ask is “Is your media agency or partner or in-house team thinking beyond the media buy? Cost and efficiency are certainly important, but creating a program that is more holistic and true to the brand will be more effective, and help business growth.