Magazine Advertising
Your options as an advertiser.
Publishers involved in magazine advertising media are trying to do more for the advertiser. In fact a large proportion of them are developing their websites so they can offer Online advertising packages to compliment their existing print media advertising formats.
You see magazine ads have always been more about image than response. Don't get me wrong, magazines have a part to play in the whole advertising and marketing mix, but the advertising costs associated with this form of media advertising has limited its appeal to the masses of small business and consumer targeted advertisers.
They now say that simple magazine advertisements work better for response, as potential buyers are in a different frame of mind when it comes to the larger corporate style adverts. The branding message ads of today follow a consistent theme in trying to match the qualities of a product into how this fits into the quality of our lives. Of course this is very different for response generating ads - these should have a clear message and a real call to action. However, as a buyer of magazine advertising, there is one thing you have to get right first - to match your product or service with the target audience of the magazine.
Make sure you look at all of the possible variables when it comes to magazines. Of course magazine advertising rates are important to your overall campaign, but you must also consider the audience, demographics and the identity of the magazine, as well as its standing in the marketplace.
When I was working on advertising sales services for traditional media publishers, advertisers always use to ask me for right hand page positions for their adverts. If there were too many advertisers requesting this, we'd have to turn the last bookings down when it came to doing the flat-plan and pagination of the magazine. In truth, it really doesn't make any difference where an advert is, as long as the structure of the page lends itself to a natural way of reading text and looking at ads.
However, one thing that Internet Advertising has taught us is that people seem to be more willing to click on ads if they are within the main text and actually match the general colour scheme of the website. Is this also true for magazines? Personally, I think not. People take time to read magazines and enjoy doing so. They are in a totally different mindset and will respond to something if it is attractive to do so at that time.
Therefore, forget the subconscious, subliminal and surreal arguments to successful and clever ad designs. Come up with something that is clear, matches the needs of the readership and reflects the quality of the product or service you are offering. All you have to do then is find the right magazines!
Take a look at our list of business magazines and consumer magazines in our media database.
See our other Advertising guide pages.
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