5 Resources for Multi-Channel Local Advertising
Posted by Jessie Johnson on Thu, Jan 20, 2011 @ 09:13 AM
There’s no longer such a thing as a mass medium. Advertising to today’s consumers requires an integrated approach—rather than putting our entire budget into one media channel, we need to consider them all, especially those that capture a large share of an audience’s time spent. 
Advertising spend has historically been disproportionate to the amount of time US adults spend with each medium:*
- By the end of 2007, only 8% of the advertising spend was on the internet, while that’s where US adults spent 29% of their time.
- Newspaper advertising represented 20% of the total ad spend, but only had an audience 8% of the time.
- Radio claimed only 9% of the budget but 19% of the time.
- Print magazines and television, however, were the most closely aligned. Magazines secured 6% of the ad spend and 7% of consumer time, while television secured 32% of the ad spend and 37% of consumer time.
Now, mobile and OOH are proving their viability as a channel for local advertisers, adding to the concept of “time spent” the notion of being always-on, a message delivered based on opportune timing (Caribou Coffee bus stop ad in Minneapolis, or location-based mobile advertising, the revenues of which are expected to reach $1.3 B in 2013, according to BIA/Kelsey.
Meanwhile, technology empowers us with choice over what content we consume and when. We can easily DVR our favorite shows and skip the commercials, or likewise “tune out” an ad in any other media channel. We have access to a greater amount of knowledge about a product or brand from a greater number of sources in a vastly shorter period of time. What advertisements aren’t edited out, then, must compete for what little remains of our attention.
How can local advertisers compete when consumers are engaged in so many types of media? By using a mix of online and offline media in their advertising, and a consistent measurement such as CPM to track results of the campaign.
This is the first in a series of posts highlighting the benefits of each major local advertising channel along with some industry resources on how to plan and buy those media channels.
Learn more about multi-channel local advertising in a complimentary white paper, or join in the conversation when you sign up today to be a member of adve.nu, an online community for local advertisers.
*Source for audience stats: VanBoskirk, Shar. (January 4, 2008). US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2007-2012. Forrester Research, via eMarketer.com