A new study out of the UK has found print boosts overall return on investment (ROI) by three times on average in marketing campaigns.

Commissioned by News Works and Benchmarketing, the results have prompted the recommendation that spend on print should return to 2013 levels.

The ROI study analysed six categories – retail, automotive, travel and transport, finance, combined service, and food to explore how ad spend has evolved in the last five years.

From 2011 to 2015, digital ad spend has increased by almost ten per cent, and in 2015 it accounted for a third of all media spend.

Meanwhile print spend has shrunk from 13.7 per cent in 2011 to 7.5 per cent in 2015.

But the study poses the question: has the pendulum swung too far?

Speaking at Mumbrella’s Publish event, Mahlab Media’s head of content, Martin Wanless argues that it has.

He cites The ROI study in his speech, which finds campaign effectiveness increases by 20 to 40 per cent when print is added. Adding digital advertising to a print campaign also increases ROI by up to five times. 

Wanless says, “Forget print or digital. That is not the conversation we should be having. It is print and digital.

“In 2016, in my opinion,” Wanless concludes, “Only a digital dinosaur would ignore print.” 

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