Complete Story
10/13/2017
Survey: Newspapers are second most prevalent local ad buy
Borrell and Associates has just released its annual Local Advertiser Survey in which over 3,500 small businesses were surveyed about their advertising plans. The study includes information on which media an advertiser might cut or add, which media advertisers consider to be hot, how they use digital, and of course, how radio fits into that equation. The results showed that advertisers still use newspaper, digital is their number one choice, and events are huge.
Here are the bullet-point highlights of the study, followed by our interview with Gordon Borrell, in which we dig deeper into what he discovered this year.
➢ Most marketing decisionmakers are novices
➢ Newspapers are 2nd most prevalent ad buy, behind digital
➢ Social Media is popular, but gets only 4% of ad budgets
➢ Social Media & TV are “most effective” media
➢ 57% are increasing digital advertising expenditures
➢ Among traditional media, radio & direct mail fare best for increases
➢ No single marketing challenge dominates, but ROI is highest on list
➢ 68% of advertisers engage in email campaigns
➢ 97% participated in an event; 48% sponsored one
Radio Ink: Why is newspaper still so high on the list of advertisers after so many years of a downward spiral for that industry?
Gordon Borrell: Because at the end of the day, advertisers still prefer something tangible…and because print actually still works pretty well. It’s ranked No. 2 in terms of driving new business, behind social media. It’s also a very powerful medium for distribution of circulars (coupon flyers). When a Walmart flyer is distributed in the local paper, sales for just about everything advertised in that flyer increases.
