Hike #8 : Traditional Media: Outdated or Underrated?

Hello, dear readers, and welcome back to a new edition of the Marketing Summit Trail. This week, we will discuss how various traditional media platforms can support your marketing communication strategies. But before we dig any further into this topic, it is valuable to provide you with a quick overview of what traditional media actually encompasses. Traditional media advertising can be divided into a few subcategories, which are:

• Broadcast media advertising, which consists of Television and Radio

• Print media advertising, consisting of newspaper and magazines

• Out of House Advertising (OOH): Can be found in a few variations, such as outdoor, transit and place-based

• Outdoor OOH: Mostly found in the form of posters, boards or displays that are placed along roads or other high-traffic areas.

  
  

• Transit OOH: Found on public transport, like buses and trains. Or places that are related to public transport such as stations and bus terminals. Can range from posters and displays in stations to posters or other displays on trains and buses.

  
  

• Place based OOH: Can be found in a range of public places, such as bar, restaurant, cinema, airport, arena, fitness center and so forth in the form of posters or video displays.

Now it can be argued that some of these platforms are a bit outdated, and have become less relevant for advertising purposes considering the massive growth of online traffic and the range of opportunities online advertising brings with it. This is certainly true in a way, however the benefits of traditional media platforms for marketing platforms should not be underestimated as it can be used as a supporting solution for digital media platforms and can affect consumer behavior quite significantly. So today, I will illustrate to you why traditional media platforms are not outdated, how it can assist companies in their marketing campaigns and how it affects your personal buying behaviors and attitudes.

Traditional Marketing: A Supporting Pillar In The Digital Marketing Campaign

In last weeks blog, we have discovered the various opportunities that advertising on online media platforms brings with it. However, now it is time to uncover some of the unique aspects of advertising on traditional media and ways in which these traditional media platforms can support the online advertising campaigns. If properly utilized, companies can optimize their campaigns and amplify the effects of their digital marketing effects.

First of all, traditional marketing platforms have to ability to reach certain groups in society that do not spend a lot of time online (Martech, 2024).The majority of this group will consist of elderly people, but make up quite a significant part of society, usually with a large buying power. For example, think of the times when you visited your grandmother. How many times did you see her swiping on her smartphone compared to her watching the news on the tv. Chances are, your grandma barely knows how a smartphone works and spends significant amount of time behind the TV following the news or reading the local newspaper. Therefore being very prone to traditional marketing. Not being able to reach this demographic group, could result in missing out on large amount of revenues.

Another notable aspect of traditional marketing applications is that is usually very trusted opposed to digital marketing, especially when looking at printed advertisements (Moorman, 2022) A survey conducted by the Marketing Sherpa has indicated that 82% voted printed advertisements to be the most trustworthy. In a way, this is surprising, considering that today's society has become very digital. On the other hand, it makes sense as everyone faces loads of digital advertising every day, and we have become used to ignoring the majority of it. Besides, the rise of online advertising has also given way to emerging scams disguised as advertising. Which has negatively impacted its credibility in the eyes of the consumer.

To conclude this section, traditional marketing increases the chances of connecting with a local audience rather than reaching the masses (Martech, 2024). For example, people who live in smaller provincial villages would be more interested in reading advertisements about the local food festival rather than a food festival organized elsewhere in Ontario (Indeed Editorial Team, 2024). This approach of utilizing traditional marketing in local towns can be very effective. Especially, when I look at my own experiences in the town I grew up in. My hometown is not very big, and the local newspaper is still being read reasonably often in the region, which offers the opportunity for newspaper ads. Other means of advertising were billboards, posters, and flyers. Obviously, digital advertising was also used, but on a smaller scale, traditional media still had a prominent role.

The bottom line of this section is that traditional media is still very relevant today and can assist digital media campaigns in reaching certain groups in society that they usually wouldn't be able to. Secondly, companies can profit from people's trust in traditional media in their advertising strategies. If utilized properly, this trust in the traditional platform could carry over to trust in the company.

Discussion: Every company should use OOH media in their marketing campaign

At the very start of this article, I have provided you with a few examples of the various Out-of-house media or OOH media that exist out there. Obviously, using this type of media can be very effective for some marketing campaigns. But should every company use it for their campaign? The answer to this question hinges very much upon the goal of the campaign, which audience you try to reach and the budget of the campaign.

For example, Outdoor OOH advertising is mainly based upon using large signs, billboards or posters placed in a very prominent position to make it visible for a large audience. This could be a very useful medium if the marketing budget is high and the main goal of the campaign is to create brand awareness. In order to reach the right audience, the placement of these signs, billboards and posters can be determined. For example, a billboard of McDonald's can be very effective next to a highway, in order to attract hungry drivers. However, generally speaking it is harder to make a highly targeted outdoor OOH advertising, are usually associated with high costs, has low levels of interaction and is therefore prone to clutter and media fatigue.

When looking at Transit OOH advertising, there are similarities and differences that can be noticed when compared to outdoor OOH advertising. For example, public transport covers a lot of ground and moves around a lot. Meaning that the adverts on buses, trams, subway and other means of transport can get quite a lot of exposure. Especially when there are a lot of commuters. The downsides of this type of advertising is that the amount of exposure among the target audience is fairly volatile and the the ads can become quite expensive, dependent on the size, the type of ad and mode of public transport. For example, placing a door decal ad on the TTC subway in Toronto for 4 weeks will cost you about $10,000 for 4 weeks (Choros, 2024).

Lastly, when look at the place based OOH advertising, it must be very clear who the target consumers are in order to make the efforts effective. This is due to the fact that the specific location for the ad must be determined, and are bound to this location. So it must be a location that the target customer frequently visits. The benefit of this type of OOH media is that it offers opportunities for interactivity, creativity and high levels of involvement. Such as by putting QR codes on the ads, that direct the customer directly to an app or an offering from the brand or interactive screens that consumers can actually interact with, like touching the screen or pushing buttons (AdQuick, n.d.).

One of the most famous examples of OOH media marketing are the billboards in Time Square in New York, and perfectly demonstrate the usage of outdoor- and place-based OOH-media marketing:

Source: TheMirrorlessWorld4k (YouTube)

Personally, I regard Time Square as one of the most captivating OOH media applications I have ever seen. While walking through Time Square, you will find yourself looking up all the time, glancing up at the billboards. The downside of this, is that there are some many billboards that it is easy to get overwhelmed and don't remember a lot of the content that is put out there. One type of OOH media that could be exploited more, according to me, would be interactive ads. This is due to the fact that interactive ads while cause you to stop and interpret the message cautiously, which will make it more likely that the ad will be stored in your long term memory.

The Future of Broadcasting Media in Canada: What's Next?

When looking at the trends in the Canadian broadcasting landscape, there are a few notable factors that can redefine how companies should approach their marketing efforts, regarding their usage of traditional broadcasting platforms. First of all, Canadian consumer preferences are shifting from traditional broadcasting channels to streaming services. This shift can be explained by a few factors. Streaming platforms offer a certain degree of convenience. Users are not tied to a broadcasting schedule and can access the content they want to see, whenever they want. Besides, these streaming platforms are usually more affordable that the regular satellite or cable packages that are being offered. This also causes viewers to increasingly start to watch content online, rather than traditional TV and Video (Statista, n.d.).A way in which traditional broadcasters can counter this effect, is by offering their own broadcasting services, that are integrated within the regular cable package. This could also stimulate using the traditional broadcasting channels to support the online platforms. For example by putting out adverts on TV to promote the streaming services. Therefore, the future of marketing on Canadian broadcasting media should mainly focus on promoting the content that can be found on the online streaming platforms, as they are expected to grow and overtake regular TV in the coming years. Regular companies and advertisers should also be aware of this trend, and should start using their adverts on traditional broadcasting channels to refer to their online content, marketing campaign or digital media channels. As regular TV campaigns will continue to become a supporting factor rather than the main campaign as online streaming services will keep increasing in popularity.

When looking at the popularity of radio, there also seems to be a decrease in the revenues that these platforms seem to generate in recent years. Meaning that less people listen to these type of platforms, resulting in less advertising opportunities. Traditional radio is also losing popularity to online radio, meaning that advertising on traditional radio channels might not be very fruitful in the future and should fulfill a supporting role in a bigger campaign. The digitalization in both TV and radio might also contribute to attracting a younger audience, therefore being left with a fairly limited target audience on the traditional channels (Topic: Radio in Canada, 2024).

The shift from traditional to digital is also nicely illustrated in the video below:

(Source: Mashable Brand X)

Traditional Media: Secret Weapon or Outdated?

So, is traditional media even worth it in this day and age? Or should you put your marketing budget elsewhere? The truth is, it can be a secret weapon if it is utilized in the correct way. As mentioned before, the role of traditional marketing methods has been reduced due to the rise of digital marketing. However, this does not mean that it is useless. It can still fulfill a supporting role in a bigger campaign. You can utilize it to target older demographical groups, increase trust in your company as well as effectively targeting more local communities. However, these efforts should never stand on their own as the current society is very digitalized and continues to increase their content consumption online. There are still instances in which traditional media can get by in today's society, such as the digital billboards in Time-Square. These billboards are not likely to be outdated anytime soon and are therefore relatively future proof, which is probably also the case for OOH media marketing in general.

An example of a successful company that still uses traditional marketing channels quite often is Coca-Cola. Think of the famous Coca-Cola Christmas adverts that you see at the end of November and start of december:

(Source: Coca-Cola)

Final Thoughts:

As discussed before, traditional media are definitely still relevant in today's advertising campaigns and can play a powerful supporting role in a larger campaign. However, there is also a substantial increase in digitalization that should not be ignored. When looking at my own consumption of media channels, it is noticeable that most of it takes place online. Meaning that I'm not very prone to traditional marketing. However, when I visit my parents I feel myself watching TV a lot more, alongside watching Netflix. Listening to the radio is also something I do in long car rides, as playlist can get boring after a while. This means that I keep returning to traditional media channels even though most of my consumption happens on online platforms. So for me personally, traditional media channels still play a role in my life, even if it does not make up the majority of my consumption. So I could still be a target of traditional marketing, but is certainly not the case for all of Gen-Z (Patel, 2017). Therefore, according to my analysis traditional media is still relevant, but for an older audience and more in a supporting role rather than the main campaign. If utilized properly, it can amplify the digital campaign. Lastly, not all traditionally media channels will be outdated soon, such as the OOH advertising like the billboards in Times Square.

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References (APA 7th):

·       AdQuick. (n.d.-b). Place-Based Advertising | AdQuick. https://www.adquick.com/media/place-based

·       Coca-Cola Great Britain & Ireland. (2020, November 30). Coca-Cola Christmas 2020 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8BJUrUPm-U

·       Choros, J. (2024, May 28). Here’s What TTC Advertising Costs… Little Dragon Media. https://littledragon.ca/ttc-advertising/#:~:text=Placing%20such%20an%20advertisement%20on,for%20a%20year%2Dlong%20advertisement

·        content: MarketingSherpa, design: Scott McDaniel, code: Steve Beger, MECLABS. (2016d, January 7). Marketing Chart: Which advertising channels consumers trust most and least when making purchases. MarketingSherpa. https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/channels-customers-trust-most-when-purchasing

·        Indeed Editorial Team. (2024, August 16). Traditional Media vs. Digital Media in Marketing. Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/traditional-media-vs-digital-media

·       Indeed Editorial Team. (2024, June 27). 8 Types of Traditional Marketing Methods (With Advantages). Indeed Career Guide. https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/traditional-marketing

·       Kutev, C. (2024, August 16). What is traditional marketing? (Plus types, pros and Cons). Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/traditional-marketing

·        Martech, A. (2024d, January 11). Digital versus traditional Marketing: What today’s C-Suite needs to know. Wharton Online. https://online.wharton.upenn.edu/blog/digital-versus-traditional-marketing/

·       Moorman, C., Ryan, M., & Tavassoli, N. (2022, May 24). Why marketers are returning to traditional advertising. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/04/why-marketers-are-returning-to-traditional-advertising

·       Patel, D. (2017, May 30). Gen Z hates TV, and what that means for traditional advertising. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/2017/05/30/gen-z-hates-tv-and-what-that-means-for-traditional-advertising/

·       Statista. (n.d.). TV & Video - Canada | Statista Market Forecast. https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/media/tv-video/canada

·       The Mirrorless World 4k. (2024, June 20). NEW YORK TIMES SQUARE 2024 | 4K WALK TOUR MORNING [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVlPbrImf6U

·       Topic: Radio in Canada. (2024, October 8). Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/2978/radio-in-canada/#topicOverview