Reports underline decline in appeal of traditional media

Forecasts of the advertising market indicate that spend is increasing, but newer media are gaining at the expense of print.

THE RECESSION IN THE UK ECONOMY HAS SPARED the advertising industry where, counter to GDP, advertising spend increased 1.1% during the first quarter of 2012. And the projections are revenues will grow 2.9% this year and a further 4.4% in 2013.

But this is not necessarily good news for print. The figures from AA/Warc show spend in printed local and national newspapers, consumer and business magazines to be in decline, while spend on internet and radio is growing. Outdoor advertising was growing

THESE FIGURES ARE SUPPORTED BY FORECASTS FROM GROUP M, which also points to the rapid growth of advertising on the internet (really covering different styles of advertising). It has grown from a market share of less than 10% in 2005 to a projected 43% in 2013 and 14% higher in 2012 than in 2011.. It means that online covers 40% of the measured media element of advertising (meaning the mainstream channels.

GroupM puts 2012 growth on par with the AA/Warc report, at 3.4%. But it is the decline in regional press spend of around 11% that matches the expansion in online advertising. This means that by 2013 it suggests, the share of the adverrtising pie taken by consumer magazines will have halved from 6% to 3%; that B2B magazines will have plummeted from 8% to 2%; regional press from 21% to 7% and national press from 13% to 8%.

THE SECTORS IN STEEPEST DECLINE HAVE BEEN RELIANT on recruitment advertising which has switched wholesale from printed page to internet, while print sectors using display advertising are falling, only slower.

The way that figures for expenditure on direct mail have changed, making comparisons between this year and last impossible says AA/Warc, hence its predictions for ad spend growth do not include any change in the direct mail market, still less for the cross media space where spend straddles both print and digital.

Marketers have bee missing in this area through having no proper integration between email and direct mail and only half that offer any integration between display advertising campaigns, mobile ad campaigns and so on.

A REPORT FROM RESPONSYS AND THE DMA SAYS businesses are missing out because they lack a clearly defined strategy towards creating an integrated campaign, despite a 70% uplift in conversion rates when display ads and online channels work together, with a 55% gain when display mixes with mobile.

Simon Robinson, senior marketing and alliances director at Responsys says: “If they [marketers] truly want to change the conversation, they need to not only recognise the value of integrating digital channels, but, more importantly, put relationships first and acquisition second. Only then will marketing start to move away from siloed campaigns to create truly automated interactions with customers.”