Google just got smacked by its print competitors! And the advertising business just got more interesting.

The old adage in advertising, "Half of my advertising expenditures are wasted--I'm just not sure which half," became a little more out-dated.  You see, some major print media are beginning to offer advertisers a deal that's even better than what's been so appealing about on-line advertising--and that would be a guarantee of results!

Google's eaten the print media's lunch for a long time.

First, a little background for people who don't work in the Marketing Department: Until just recently, when one placed advertising in print media, there was always the uncertainty of knowing how many people would eventually "see," read, and then act on the promotional message the firm just contracted for.  Of course, the "buy" was made on the basis of audited circulation, but a placement decision was always risky as to whether it would pay-off, that is, make economic sense.  

Advertising costs can be substantial in a marketplace that's increasingly fragmented and, thus, the cost of placing print ads, given the riskiness of their eventual performance, has in recent times been circumvented in favor of paid, on-line messages where the ad buyer doesn't pay for the placement until a viewer actually "clicks" the screen to get more information and pay closer attention to the commercial message.  In this venue, Google's led the way and in the process made a literal fortune with what in the business is called "pay-per-click" PPC advertising.  

Wow!  That sounds better than what Google offers!

Well, that's all in the process of changing--and the shift is not incremental, it's dramatic.  Meredith, a publisher of widely read magazines like Better Home and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal just announced that it will--for it's biggest advertisers--guarantee sales by a certain amount.  Wow!  That's better than Google's been offering; the search/advertising behemoth, after all, only guaranteed that someone would pay a little attention to the commercial message [i.e., click]--not actually buy it!

But wait, wait--there's more [to use an old line from direct advertisers]!  Time Inc and the Starcom MediaVest Group also recently started promising advertisers that certain performance levels [i.e., advertising recall, advertising impact measures] would be achieved or remedies could be invoked.  

Half of the advertising budget is a lot to lose.

I'd say that the world of print-versus-on-line media just got more interesting--a lot more interesting.  It seems that everyone in business who's job it's been  to place advertising has been smitten by the timing, targeting capabilities, and precision of gauging attention with on-line media--and forsaking print in the process.  But the world of print media has it's own compelling, attractive features, including ease of exposure, pass-along possibilities, relative permanency, and the temporal setting of the audience.  Until now, when a one-time, full-page ad insertion costs as much as $25,000 or $30,000, the print ad benefits were minimized, but not any more, it seems.

Yes sireeee, that's all changing in a huge way.  What print media's lacked in term of precision of data to help advertisers understand and justify their placement "buy" decisions--that's about to shift the advantage of print advertisers.  The reason is simple, it seems at first glance that print media seems to be talking--and offering--a better game than Google and friends.  

Who said that business is boring??

FWIW:  Changing the topic to life insurance!

There's an interesting article I ran across about life insurance a few days ago.  I'm always surprised how something with so much relevance to virtually everbody is so little understood by so many!  I'll post the article on the blogs Facebook Page.  Check it out if you're not life-insurance smart! KBM

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Follow Keith's biz blog on Twitter for updates and see more of what he's reading about on his Facebook Page. If you are inclined, you can write him at kmurray@bryant.edu.