Town Money Saver Blog

In our research about consumer trust in different advertising channels, we discovered that the most trusted channels were all traditional. Or, as the digital marketer might say — offline.

Every year, consumers spend more time using digital devices. Every year, more media is consumed digitally. Naturally, advertising dollars are increasingly flowing to digital as well. But, don’t pull the plug on that direct mail campaign just yet. New research has again shown that content on paper affects our brains in different and more powerful ways.

This blog post highlights the advantages of print advertising, including loyal readership among affluents and its perceived level of trust. And print is still a very dependable and necessary component of an ad campaign. In fact, there has been a bit of a resurgence in print advertising because advertisers recognize the fact that, in a crowded online market polluted with banner and display ads, print is a legitimate alternative for branding and engagement.

Hey, direct marketers and merchants. Stop. It’s not your problem. You can’t solve it. Many of you think the issue with coupons is your issue to solve in order to raise the average sale price. Stop, slow down, and look at one simple fact. More than 70 percent of the U.S. population will not buy your brand without a discount simply because they cannot afford to do so.

It’s a fact: the internet, digital, social have grown significantly over the last years and are taking more and more of our time. Marketing money has followed that movement towards digital. But was that unconditional shift of marketing money to digital a good idea? Probably not. There are other, lesser-known facts. Printed ads are trusted much more than digital ads, the influence of ads on social media is very low. And direct mail significantly outperforms digital.

Millennials are nostalgic. Many of the companies I spoke with said that some of their best return is coming from the younger generations, individuals that perhaps miss the days of circling their wish list of toys in the Toy R Us catalog.