Magazines trump TV in the marketing mix

Briggs, whose clients include Ford, Kraft, Astra Zeneca and Procter & Gamble, told attendees at the American Magazine Conference that he’s examined which parts of the media mix work best and ho

By Editor on Oct 26, 2006

Briggs, whose clients include Ford, Kraft, Astra Zeneca and Procter & Gamble, told attendees at the American Magazine Conference that he's examined which parts of the media mix work best and how the media work together to deliver a marketer's goals. According to Advertising Age magazine, his company considered 19 cross-media accountability studies it had conducted for marketers in the automotive, pharmaceutical, entertainment, electronics and retail categories. They measured the real world results of the 19 campaigns and aggregated them to identify patterns for how each medium delivered.

TV, Briggs says, was the most dominant in all of the studies as a way to increase brand awareness. But magazines were most effective at increasing both brand awareness and purchase intent.

[TV] reach is expensive, because not everyone sticks around for the commercials, he warns. That's why it's so important to include magazines and the Internet. TV looks much higher than perhaps it is in a given campaign because of programming ratings.

Magazines are the most consistent performer of all media measured if you look at ROI, Briggs says.

As a marketer, you maximize ROI when you use all media, and magazines are key to that. Each element of the marketing mix must find its own strength and leverage it to surround the consumer with a synergistic and consistent message. Leaving magazines out of the mix is a tremendous mistake.

Briggs calls magazines the safest bet to make if you want to achieve results.

Just thought you'sd like to know.