These days, the influence and validity of print media and the printed word in general has been called into question. Companies increasingly question their marketing teams on whether they should run print ads or stick to TV and web. We live in an increasingly digital world and the avenues of communicating with the public have changed, or have they?
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently decided to test the age old practice of newspaper advertising by creating a fictional airline called Derrie-Air and running several ads in their paper. They set up an internet site for the airline and tracked the number of hits they received. Since there was no other advertising available for the Derrie-Air site other than the ads they ran, they used the site to measure the impact of newspaper advertising on the public.
Philadelphia Media Holdings spokesman Jay Devine really put it best when he described the reason for the experiment. He said they ran the ads to "demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people's faces."
If you'd like to read the full article, here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25006813
Or check out the Derrie-Air website.
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2 comments:
"There's nothing wrong with toting around a little extra mass-as long as you pay for it."
Haha. That's such a cool experiment. We have time to do one like that right?
I was fascinated by this experiment this weekend and checked out the website as well. On the one hand, I am intrigued by the response of the ads and feel this is a great experiment to form a foundation for discussion regarding the impact of advertising.
On the other hand, it is difficult to use this as an example of typical response to advertising since the ads were of such a shock-value nature. It would be difficult to repeat the response or interest in a real life situation.
However, either way ... I commend them on getting a valid discussion going regarding the effectiveness of messages in general. Thanks for the post!
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