Print Advertisingin 2015 and beyond

LOGICAL CHOICE It was also one of the very few choices a brand had. Today though a mar-keter has more than 60 advertising channels to choose from, and print is one of the more expensive ones.

PRINT USED TO BE THE

FOR ALL MARKETERS.

According to the annual World Press Trends survey re-leased in June 2015: “Newspaper advertising revenues are falling nearly everywhere, while circulation revenues are relatively stable.”

We have all heard that the future is mobile. It is esti-mated that 8 out of 10 smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up, and globally we spend on average 2.2 hours per day on mobile. Half of that time is used on apps.

According to Newspaper Association of America, “The digital audience engaged with newspaper content reached a new peak in March 2015, totaling 176 million adult unique visitors. The count is a 10% increase from the 161 million unique visitors measured by comScore in March 2014.”If there was any doubt left about the importance of mobile, one should look no further than the Facebook’s third quarter 2015 earnings report - up 41 percent in

Print Advertising in 2015 and beyondthe third quarter from a year earlier - accelerated by earnings from mobile advertising. What does it mean for marketers. Should they forego print and jump on the bandwagon of digital? The an-swer is no and yes.

2.7 billion people globally read newspapers in print. And, as stated earlier, circulation revenues are stable. Print still is and we predict will be a strong advertising medium for years to come, especially in Asia with India in particular showing one of the healthiest circulation rates. However, the future of print advertising is interac-tive, measurable and immersive - combining the strong tradition and broad reach of print with interactive, lo-calized and trackable Augmented Reality ads.

FROM STATIC TO INTERACTIVE, ENGAGING PRINT WITH AUGMENTED REALITY

When talking about print advertising, most marketers think about driving brand awareness. Online advertising is often associated with bottom of the funnel and driving conversions but not so much awareness.

Marketers should start rethinking this idea because in today’s saturated market where audiences have learnt how to “mute” advertising, awareness without engagement is not going to catch the attention and promote loyalty of audiences.

Augmented Reality advertising holds the power to attract attention of, engage and convert the traditionally elusive print audiences, ROI if which has otherwise been a headache to measure

An Augmented Reality campaign can catch the attention of the otherwise aloof audiences skimming through newspapers and magazines.

Engage with AR - the previously out-lined mobile usage rates mean that any barrier that might have existed has disappeared. Users are extremely comfortable with smartphones and apps. AR taps into that potential.

Convert with AR - AR enables mar-keters to place a clear Call to Action on print that can be immediately fol-lowed up by their print target audi-ences. Staying top of mind is great but driving clear results with your print campaigns is even better

ATTRACT WITH AR ENGAGE WITH AR CONVERT WITH AR

In this age of the customer, the only sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge of and engagement with customers.” — David M. Cooperstein, Forrester Research,

writing in ‘Competitive Strategy in the Age of the Customer

“

EMOTIONAL STORYTELLING WITH AUGMENTED REALITY

It is not a new concept that buying decisions are strongly influenced by emotions acting on subconscious level which then makes us believe we are making purely logical decisions when in fact it is the opposite. Experts claim that as much as 90% of buying decisions are made not consciously. Even if the percentage is smaller than that, brands have long rec-ognized that emotional engagement is an irreplaceable part of a winning ad formula.

In the past brands aimed to create an emotional connection with their audiences not only with the content of ads but also with repetitive messaging on a large scale, making sure that consumers heard the same thing over and over again. Today, like mentioned before, audiences have learnt to “mute” ads and, more importantly, in the saturated ad market repetitive messaging is becoming a turn off. For example, of the the best practices for Youtube video ads is to use a frequency cap so that a single viewer won’t see an ad so many times that she will develop negative connotations with the brand.

Today repetitive messaging has been replaced by long term storytelling and interactivity. A viewer who is enticed enough to take an action related to your brand is much more likely to develop a connection with it. And you can make that con-nection a positive one by providing a delightful and fresh experience. The technological capabilities of AR advertising enable marketers to delight and surprise fans and customers with emotional stories like never before

Furthermore, Augmented Reality enables audiences not only to ac-

tively engage with a print campaign but also to shape the story.

MAKING PRINT PERSONAL AND LOCAL WITH AUGMENTED REALITY

Google famously talks about “Micro Moments” and the “Zero Moment of Truth” - about putting the right ad in front of the right user at the exactly right moment. Print advertising has never been know for any of these. Aug-mented Reality transforms print advertising enabling brands to create their own “Micro Moments”.

Imagine a user scanning a print ad with an AR app which using geo-targeting pin points the location of the viewer and gives the most relevant offer to them, like a coupon for the nearest branch of a coffee shop chain valid for the next two hours. The experience can be further personalized by adding a social media sign in which pulls data from viewers profile and makes the whole experience even more special.

Augmented Reality Advertising for print enables marketers to access the blooming newspaper readership in Asia and expand their print real-estate by adding an Augmented reality layer which maximizes the ROI you get out of your print spending. With eCommerce in APAC on the rise - more than 40% of customers in Asian markets use a smartphone to shop - marketers can not afford not to extend their print online.

HubSpot, a company the revenue of which has gone up by 58% in Q2 of 2015 compared to Q2 in 2014, says “In fact, the White House Office of Consumer Affairs found that it costs businesses 6-7x more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. But despite that fact, only 7% of consumers say that their service experi-ences with a company exceed their expectations (Source: ECHO and American Express). The writing is on the wall: Successful inbound organizations don’t just focus on attracting qualified visitors, converting them into leads, and closing them into customers. Instead, they aim to provide an all-encompassing remarkable inbound experience for potential and current customers.”

Engaging current customers with delightful and memorable campaigns fosters loyalty and potentially increases customer lifetime value. Augmented Reality is definitely one of the most engaging and fun ways to keep your current customers loyal and turn them into evangelists for your brand.

Augmented Reality creates hyper-local, real-time, personal and delight-ful “Micro Moments” that elevate print advertising beyond what print or digital can do alone.

The aggregated usage data can be later used for gaining deeper insights in your cross platform

performance using Business Intelligence applications and Big Data Analytics.

Augmented Reality can enhance experiences that are al-ready online. Volvo did that very successfully for the re-lease of the S60. Volvo created a YouTube masterhead that enabled users to play an Augmented Reality game driving a car on their phones. Volvo experienced 9.6% interaction rate, 192,319 engagement clicks in masthead, 293% increase in traffic to volvocars.com.

YOU CAN’T IMPROVE WHAT YOU CAN’T MEASURE

AUGMENTED REALITY BEYOND PRINT

Another good example lies in retail where the “Zero Mo-ment of Truth” is the point of purchase. The point of pur-chase can be very difficult for brands to influence because usually the control lies with the retailer that dictates the in-

store experience. Augmented Reality enables brands to have greater control over their products since the on-

line real-estate is in their control.

SUMMARY

Augmented Reality advertising is a new, creative channel for marketers boundaries of which have not yet been pushed. AR holds immense potential that remains to be tapped by savvy, tech forward companies.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of how AR improves print advertising:

• An AR layer on top of your print ad, enables you to get more out of your investment in print ads, which often can be pricey. • AR makes your print ads actionable.• The original and surprising campaigns that AR makes possible makes your brand memorable and lets you stand out.• AR takes the consumers of print ads from simple viewers to an engaged audience, fostering

loyalty and emotional attachment to your brand.• AR lets you clearly measure the ROI of your print investment, providing valuable data.• AR enables you to make your print campaigns more relevant by providing people with

more relevant real-time information and location specific deals.• AR eliminates the need to waste precious space on print ads. For example, dealer

bottoms can be eliminated and the same information shown on the digital AR layer which will also automatically show the closest dealership to the reader by locating

the phone’s GPS signal.

Have a question about the possibilities AR Advertising offers?

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