There are so many advertising channels it’s hard to know which one will deliver the best results.

Advertising should be part of an overall marketing campaign that targets a desired audience. The type of ad and media you use depends on the people you are trying to attract and the actions you want to illicit.

We are increasingly living our lives online and have more choice than at any point in history. Using Google we can search for even the most bizarre information, while platforms like Amazon Prime, NetFlix, YouTube and Vimeo dish up a giddying array of media that we can consume whenever we want. Similarly, commerce and auction sites such as Amazon and Ebay lets us shop around the clock. Social media encourages personal recommendation and features highly-targeted sponsored posts.

Print advertising

Unique among the myriad of advertising channels, print advertising is tangible. Perhaps the main reason people still engage with printed media is that you can touch it! Being able to hold a publication makes the content feel real, it exists. But the downside of print advertising is tracking and proving the ROI, so what role does print advertising still play?

It’s perfect for building brand awareness, strengthening profile and it’s a great vehicle to drive offline readers online. Brands that place advertising in credible, editorially-led industry publications find they are often perceived as more trustworthy than brands that can only be found online.

Print advertising can be integrated into the online aspects of a campaign by placing QR codes and embedding augmented reality triggers into offline images. These technologies bridge the gap between printed and digital media. So print media, far from being the old man of the advertising world, still has a very important and essential role to play within integrated marketing campaigns.

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