General business confidence is down across all Sectors but local press is bucking the trend and performing Well. Considering that the general mood amongst advertisers and marketers is 'Work harder with less advertising budgets', many marketers are looking for 'deals' and it seems that some media owners are Willing to comply to get the sale.
AS budgets shrink, advertising needs to Work harder in media that offers better ROI (Return on Investment). Again, ad spend is a good indicator as to which mediums are getting the best results.
"According to figures on Adindex, February 2014 to January 2015, ad spend, on average, across the entire print industry is down by 3.9% over a two year period With trade magazines bearing the brunt at -13.4%," says Gill Randall, CEO of SPARK Media. "The only exception to this rule is community or local print which is up by 6.8%."
According to Gill, there are good reasons for this. As consumers have less money to spend, planning of Shopping trips becomes even more prolific. ROOTS research has shown that people plan their shopping by utilising inserts to research specials placed within their local community newspapers.
In fact, planning amongst food and grocery shoppers has increased by over 20% since 2004. In the USA, 62% of insert readers cited Saving time and money being one of the benefits of using inserts. 70% said that they checked inserts to find out about Sales and Savings.
Because of this, inserts for example, are an easy medium for consumers to remove and either take With them into the store or compare prices against other retailers. This is clearly reflected in the ad spend SOV (Share of Voice) with a 17% increase across the entire medium. Local press fared even better, VFD (Verified Free Delivery) SOV increased by 21% and sold Community paper inserts SOV increased by a massive 50%.
Even though these Adex billings are based on rate card and do not reflect any discounts that may have been negotiated, trends can easily be identified.
"Consumers today live busy lives," says Gill. "Convenience is the key for them as they actively seek out Ways to save time and make their lives easier. Providing localised information in a format that's easy to refer to and that is relevant to consumers, is part of the advertising channels that We offer through SPARK NMedia."
To contact SPARK Media Call O1O 492 8390, visit www.sparkmedia.co.za or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SparkMedia or look for 'SPARK Media' on Facebook.
