Using Struggling Mediums to Help Struggling Mediums
April 18th, 2006
According to Adweek, Charleston, SC ad agency Rawle Murdy has launched print, radio and TV ads to try and help lure back customers to the local paper, The Post and Courier.
Lemme get this straight. Newspapers are a struggling medium with huge drop-offs in circulations. TV, print and radio ads are struggling themselves with drop-offs in effectiveness.
Is it possible to use one to save the other?
My gut says “no.” But it’ll be fun to watch.
Other posts by Spike.
Just a media buyer in fear of her livelihood says:
Yes, but if the P&C uses an agency to do it for them, then they aren’t really admitting to being a struggling medium. A wise move on their part, but probably too late.
It’s kind of like Clear Channel. They like to buy new stations, change old formats, move dial positions etc. But they feel that the only way to communicate those changes is on their other radio stations?! Where’s the bumper sticker campaign? Where’s the giant billboard? Where’s the brightly painted van patrol making the scene at all the local hangouts with CD giveaways, t-shirt giveaways, the logo’d trash and trinkets that they give away only after the change has occurred? These aren’t new ideas, but timing is everything. God forbid, they actually generate some buzz before their loyal listeners get in the car on Monday morning only to find their beloved standby is gone.
And this is one of the media powerhouses of our time??
Anyway, unless you’ve been to Chucktown recently- you haven’t seen the fruits of all R-M’s labors. Instead of trying to lure a new demographic, like young professionals or people of different ethnic backgrounds - they are trying to retrieve the very ones that have gone away! Hmm. How about a new and improved classified section for the newbie job hunters? How about a new and improved entertainment tabloid that’s pocket size or perfect bound with a listing of bars & clubs? How about changing the “neighborhood” zones to age appropriate sections? Give the seniors a section! Give the twenty somethings a section! Give the transplants a section on how to survive down here! Why don’t they take an abbreviated form of the Sunday paper, print it in Spanish and rack it for the week?
But instead, we have the stay at home Mom next door smiling at us with her little cherub on her hip saying how she reads the paper to find out about new medical breakthroughs. Ugh.
I hope your gut is wrong, Spike but you may be right. Because as a media planner and buyer, I have to contend that none of it means anything unless you have good creative.
Keep it burning, guy!
April 20th, 2006 at 12:52 pmSpike says:
Great insights. You’re right, they need to evolve to survive.
I wouldn’t worry too much. I think traditional media will always be there. Like I said before, advertising is for AWARENESS, not for credibility. And as long as there are ad agencies, there will be ads - consumer generated or not.
Thanks for writing.
April 20th, 2006 at 1:13 pm