Everyone knows print is dead right? At least that’s the impression you get when you speak with many of today’s marketers. CMO’s, Ad Directors, and national ad agencies have all embraced the digital revolution. And with good cause… Digital, in all its forms, is clearly a rising medium. But does the rise of one media negate the effectiveness of another?
Every day we speak with business owners who are told that digital is currently the must-have media. They are told, “even if you have to throw out everything else, you have to have digital”. We continue to see an omnichannel approach as the most holistic and ultimately effective method to marketing, and as such we would have to disagree with the digital at all costs approach.
Full disclosure here. We are in the Direct Mail business. Mailbox Merchants uses saturation mailings to deliver print advertising to consumers and customers to our clients. It’s a tried and true model that continues to be remarkably effective even in this digital age. Despite our success, we keep hearing how a new wave of consumers is moving completely to digital. So, we sought to find out if that was really true.
We contracted with an independent third party to measure consumer sentiment about the use of print advertising and its influence on decision making when considering a purchase. We asked questions about print’s relevancy in today’s media landscape, its trustworthiness in the eyes of the consumer, and its ability to impact consumer shopping activity.
Would you be surprised to learn that consumers saw print as the most credible form of advertising by almost a 2 to 1 margin over ads seen online? Or that consumers spend more time reading, looking at, and engaging with print ads than digital? ( Source: Consumer Attitudes about Print Advertising, 2019 )
Print is Not Dead
These, and the answers to other questions confirmed for us what we have known all along, Print is Not Dead.
Just because something new and shiny comes along doesn’t mean those proven methods should be discarded. Just take a look at the current space race. Companies like Boeing and SpaceX are both moving to launch men into space using capsule technology remarkably similar to that of the Apollo moon mission of almost 50 years ago. Why? Because it works, it’s proven, and you can count on it to deliver.
With prospective customers engaging multiple media touchpoints along the path to purchase, print endures as a key contributor in your omnichannel marketing mix. Use it to help drive customers to your store, your website, or social media platform. Why? Because it works, it’s proven, and you can count on it to deliver.
If you would like to review the results of the complete survey, click here to download the survey.
