A couple of articles about how the balance between digital and print media are changing, and not necessarily in favor digital...

First, from eMarketer, comes this discussion of effective media choices and how the selection criteria change over time. The article cites the recent Vertis study, which we've covered before. It showed that advertising inserts and circulars are "still influential when it comes to making purchasing decisions" for 25% of US adults. Another interesting point made in this study was that the same number said that they "first to the Internet for purchasing decisions." A BIGresearch study also showed that inserts were very influential (30% of respondents when it comes to purchase of electronics), second only to word-of-mouth and articles.

Bottom-line: "it is easy to lapse into complacency when considering the best media for a campaign" so be sure and keep up on all new media-related developments. And, of course, whichever media you choose, make it a cross-media campaign that segments and targets specific consumers.

The second article comes from Knowledge @Wharton and discusses how, despite the competition from new media channels, print still outperforms digital for many marketers. In fact, the DMA projects that print-based expenditures will rise slightly by 2012, even as traditional mass media channels -- TV and radio, but especially newspapers and magazines -- continue to struggle.

Ironically, "commercial printing has gotten its momentum back in large part by doing what digital was supposed to do best -- creating and delivering the highly-individualized message." Variable data printing, which enables the creation of personalized materials (based on past purchasing history, affinities and demographic information, for example) that cross-sell products and services, has allowed print to become more flexible.

The future seems to rest with cross-media campaigns that combine the strengths of each medium and enable companies to communicate with their customers with "the right message in just the right medium." The bottom-line is that there is real ROI from both print and digital and that  "there is something powerful when you combine print and Internet."

Posted by Universal Ad