Advertising
Covert and Public Service Advertising
February 12, 2025
Print advertising is a widely used form of advertising. These advertisements appear in newspapers or magazines and are sometimes included as brochures or fliers. Anything written in the print media to grab the attention of the specific target audience comes under the purview of print advertising.
People who read newspapers or other publications have a tendency to browse the print ads that they come across. The decision to buy the product might not be instantaneous, but it does settle down in their subconscious mind. Next time they see the product in the market, they are tempted to buy it.
Print advertisements are only effective when people see them. When people browse through newspapers and publications, these advertisements should grab the attention of the potential customer. Therefore, these advertisements should be created in such a manner that they can hold the attention of the customer to some extent. Usually a team of individuals is required in order to design the advertisements.
The newspaper or magazine ad should be such that it should compel people to spend money on the products. This is just what the advertising team does. To create such an ad, the team members work on a concept and develop the wordings and images of the ad. These wordings and images are then brought together to form the final ad. Then there are people who deal with the placement of the ad. They have to make sure that if the client has paid for premium place, they get the desired exposure.
For example, an ad on the first page will get instant attention of the reader than the ad on the subsequent pages. Likewise, an ad which occupies greater space is likely to get more attention. All these factors have to be looked into while designing the ad.
The sales team of the publication makes sure that it gets ads regularly. In fact, these ads are a major source of income for the publication and hence it is expected that there should be a constant flow of the ads. The sales team does just that.
Mailers are another type of print ads. These can range from well-designed postcards to simple paper leaflets. These are usually delivered by the postal workers in people’s mailboxes. The problem with these mailers is that they get least attention and are usually considered as junk and thrown away even without reading. To reduce this occurrence, companies sometimes make use of fliers. These are paper ads which are handed over to individuals in person. The logic is that if the ad is given to people personally, they will pay more attention to it, which is actually true to some extent.
Though print advertising is still very popular, it does take a hit from time to time. For example, during the recession phase, when people’s budgets were tight, they did not resort to print ads. In addition, with the advent of Internet, the print ads in the publications have gone down because Internet has a wider reach online. To overcome this scenario, new strategies have to be developed by advertisers and the print media.
Globally, advertisers keep on developing strategies which benefit the business of print publications. Therefore, it can be said that print advertising is here to stay.