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[/responsive]The dominant paradigm in the marketing industry – that print media buying has shifted toward digital never to return – seems to have turned on its head, according to a panel of ad agency executives at a breakfast last Thursday.
“There was general consensus on the panel of four that the decline [in print ad buying] has stopped and buying into print media has stabilized – and may last for several years,” writes Kelsey Lundstrom in Folio who covered last week’s event in New York City.
We’ve been noting the stabilization recently, citing UK ad spend predictions as well as CEO consumer survey results that show digital expectations have been overstated of late. And getting this kind of confirmation from the “front line of marketing,” as Lundstrom calls it, is great news for magazine publishers.
The panelists – heavy hitters from ad agencies PDH, MEC Global, MRY and Amplifi US – “cautioned that even if print buying has stabilized, the evolving media landscape means legacy print brands face a tough challenge to capture marketers’ attention and budgets,” says Lundstrom.
That attention, and the budgets that go with it, continue to face competition from marketing automation plus growing interest in mobile and video advertising, so using an ad agency to help sort it all it important, the panelists’ comments indicated.
“Other panelists agreed that clients need ‘people like us’ more than ever, because the landscape is evolving so quickly,” Lundstrom notes.
And while that may be true, let’s not forget that is was ‘people like that’ who declared print is dead not so very long ago and advised so many publishers that digital ad revenues where their only hope. It’s great to see the pendulum swing back.