Let’s stop pretending that the world of advertising hasn’t fundamentally changed in the last few years.
All tangible, palpable and ‘real life’ advertising props, especially magazines and newspapers, have seen massive downscales and the trend doesn’t seem to be halting any time soon.
There are so many reasons that such a massive change is transpiring but let’s just go ahead and name the three biggest stepping-stones that have catapulted online advertising and completely demolished any sort of magazine ads.
To start off, we would have to look at magazine ads themselves and determine where they lack in comparison to online ads.
What is important to consider is that most people don’t like ads and especially shy away from products that don’t interest them. For a magazine that operates in a certain niche, let’s say fashion, it will be extremely difficult to pitch a product that will encompass the interests of most readers.
It becomes even grimmer when you realize that you basically have to fill your magazine with heaps and heaps of ads, that aren’t even properly targeted to an audience that would appreciate them, only to have a chance of scoring a few conversions.
The biggest downside of such an approach is that you create an atmosphere where your readers are paying you to blast them with ads.
Quite conversely, most online content is free and readily accessible from anywhere and at any point in time.
No natural disasters or any other outside influences prevents the user from accessing your information in record speed.
The second important thing to note is the way the online community works.
Instead of having five or six broad sections, as usually seen in magazines, you will have hundreds if not thousands of communities built around one compartment!
This means that you can instantaneously target the users that would be ideal for your product. Google AdWords or Facebook, for example, allow you to choose between gender, sex, race and all sorts of tiny preferences.
What can the magazines offer in return?
Basically nothing and that’s why they are rapidly falling out of style.
Another interesting point is the fact that people engage and sometimes spend years festering friendships and relationships in such communities, creating an absolutely massive emotional connection.
Do you know what’s best? As an advertiser, you are basically being offered free reign over such a congregation, on a silver platter!
There simply isn’t a better way to peddle a product and marketing experts soon took notice of that.
The last thing on our bucket list is the costly fashion of magazine ads. You have to comprehend the fact that magazine owners need to make a steady profit as they are in a constant state of urgency when it comes to money.
This is precipitated by the lavish prices of the tools needed to print the magazine. Once you have submitted an ad, you sign a contract that lasts anywhere between thirty days and a year.
This is quite the investment to make and if the ad isn’t well received by the user base, you’re basically screwed!
I hope that you now understand why magazines are having such a hard time keeping their heads up and why we are mostly likely going to witness their complete dilapidation within our lifetime.