Australia’s biggest media companies are joining forces for a $5m campaign to promote printed newspapers, as circulation and ad spend continue to fall.
The ‘Influential by Nature’ marketing blitz aims to convince advertisers to send dollars back to print, and will highlight the influence and engagement the medium produces.
APN News & Media, Fairfax, News Corp, and Seven West will promote the campaign in their newspapers, websites, and through trade media.
It will heavily feature case studies to remind advertisers of print’s influence with a ‘real-life examples of newspapers making a difference’ profiled every week.
These include pushing for the Sydney pub lockout laws it claims reduced nightlife violence by 40 per cent, and a campaign by The West Australian for readers to pledge not to drink and drive.
[Related: Newspapers in flux]
Newspaper advertising revenue has been in freefall for years and with digital ads worth only a small fraction of print ones, publishers feel they need to be proactive in promoting the medium.
Last year newspapers lost $127m in ad revenue compared to 2013 with metro titles taking the biggest hit, down 16 per cent year-on-year, according to January Standard Media Index (SMI) data.
Spending by media agencies is down from $78m in January 2012 to $42.6m and the total share of agency-booked spend has fallen from 17.6 per cent in 2011 to 10.4 per cent.
Goldman Sachs predicted earlier this year that print's share of the Australian advertising market will crash from about 20 per cent to 1.2 per cent by 2025.
APN chief executive Michael Miller, and also chairman of industry body The Newspaper Works, says it is time for the whole industry to stand up for print and highlight its role in influencing consumer and business decisions.
Miller told news outlets that newspapers are better influencers than other media because they are ‘local, topical, and relevant’ and are trusted more.
The campaign is based on Nielsen research, which shows newspapers are the most effective in influencing consumers in major and everyday commercial decisions, which Miller says shows 49 of Australia’s 50 biggest advertisers use print.
Miller says newspapers have a unique position in a ‘cluttered’ and ‘fragmented’ media landscape, making it a good option for advertisers to reach a big audience.
The campaign says newspapers reach 16 million readers a month, and they pay twice as much attention to print ads as TV, and are 30 per cent more likely to discuss products advertised with friends and family, and go online for more information.
Adding print to a campaign is said to increase its effectiveness by 20 per cent and sales by five per cent, and newspapers are more trusted than any other media.
However, media agency figures says the campaign is an ‘oversimplification’ as any media can be influential if it is done right, and newspapers should instead focus on leveraging data collected from their readers to add value for advertisers, rather than just promoting print generally.
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