Interactivity And Print Advertising

There are two reasons why companies advertise in media: (1) to immediately sell items [an ad for a new banjo] and (2) to build a brand/identity/mood surrounding an object [an ad about the banjo company]. Obviously, most ads are a combination of these two things [the ad for the banjo has art that reinforces the identity of the banjo company, but it also sells the banjo].

For (1), ads that are fully interactive are the most effective. They're doubly effective for two reasons: they allow the customer to see the product and buy with as few steps as possible and they provide lots of detailed information to the company about how marketing. DM's have been putting their marketing budget into online for a reason.

Print ads have cornered (2), for good reason. A print ad can be beautiful and pitch a message without any system or bandwidth requirements. Luxury companies know this, and really have little use for traditional online media unless they build interesting and beautiful ad experiences online. (Marc Jacobs's Daisy online game is a good example of this.)

However, there hasn't been enough innovation by print media folks to pitch more (1)-oriented advertising to advertisers. The most interactive ads I've seen are those cue-cat like barcode boxes, and frankly, those are way too clunky for the normal human to use.

It's mixing and matching media. The normal U.S. consumer does not point his cell phone camera at a barcode, take a picture, and buy the product over the phone. (He or she doesn't even buy things over mobile browsers, with ass-slow mobile internet connections that are widespread in the U.S.) Even worse is the print ad that is linked to a specific online offer. Nobody reads magazines sitting next to their computer. Nobody's going to remember that URL or that offer code in your ad.

Ads have to make sense from a consumer's perspective.

For example, blow-ins -- why not pitch a client an ad blow-in in between related editorial pages? The blow-in has more interactivity vs. a traditional print ad. Print it glossy, make it an envelope, and make it easy to fill out. Don't even buy the full page ad behind it. Put it in the middle of a related editorial piece (say, a feature about a banjo player) and
make one side beautiful and another side have a simple space to fill out ordering information. Make the beautiful side pitch one product and have the name of the product be fairly prominent in the art. (Make the product have an easy-to-remember name too.) Essentially, make it easy for the buyer to google research, if necessary, but also make it easy for him/her to buy the product on their own schedule.

Essentially, find new ways to build value for consumers of print media.

I don't see this kind of innovation happening, and I think print needs to find new, interesting ad options for their advertisers to make the kinds of profits that print businesses have made over the past several decades.