Marketing Matters
Like Radiation, Is There Too Much Advertising Exposure?
Living in a major American city offers many perks. Among them are museums, parks, performing arts and professional sports – plus, exposure to up to 5,000 ads per day, according to research firm Yankelovich.
That total is up from just 2,000 daily ads 30 years ago, and the advertising doesn’t come only from traditional media sources. The New York Times reported recently on some unusual media placements, such as when CBS promoted a primetime TV show on eggs in supermarkets and when US Airways sold ads on airsickness bags.
“What all marketers are dealing with is an absolute sensory overload,“ said Gretchen Hofman, executive vice president of marketing and sales at Universal Orlando Resort.
Despite the massive volume, advertising spending in the U.S. is expected to grow by 3.1 percent this year, according to media firm Zenith Optimedia.
At this pace, there’s no danger we’ll lose our top ranking in the world for ad spending. America’s spending is three times that of the nation in second place, Japan.
For 2011, television will continue to dominate ad spending, accounting for 40.9 percent. Newspapers will account for 20 percent of ad dollars, and Internet ad spending will grow to 15.4 percent. Magazines will garner 9.3 percent, while radio will pull in 7.1 percent, and out-of-home media will attract 6.7 percent.
The Pew Research Center compared advertising spending budgeted for this April with last April’s and found that local television spending had increased by 17 percent and that online spending had grown by 13.9 percent. Cable television saw an 8.4 percent increase, and network television was up 6.6 percent. Radio grew by 6 percent. Magazines reported a 1.4 percent growth in ad revenue, while newspaper ad spending dropped 6.4 percent.
A puzzling bit of research indicates that marketers may not be investing their media dollars in proportion to the media’s ability to influence buying decisions. That’s according to the March 2011 State of the Media Democracy survey by Deloitte.
Deloitte reported that television advertising has the most impact, influencing more than 80 percent of our buying decisions. Magazine advertising influenced half of all purchases. Online and newspaper advertising followed with 47 percent and 44 percent respectively. Radio advertising influenced one-third of the buying decisions, and out-of-home media affected 13 percent.
The Deloitte survey also probed consumers on their attitudes toward advertising. When comparing print advertising to ads on the Internet, more than half paid greater attention to magazine or newspaper ads than any type of advertising online.
Also, about a quarter of all people surveyed would be willing to pay for content both on television and online in order to avoid advertising.
So what should you do with your advertising dollars?
One promising direction is going local. Nielsen Media Research reported that local television not only is gaining advertising dollars, but also audience, and Media Audit found that almost one-third of all consumers visited their daily newspaper’s website in the past 30 days.
Airsickness bags didn’t show any promise.
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