This means that magazines consistently delivered both brand awareness,near the top of the funnel,and purchase intent,which is at the very bottom of the purchase funnel…which is the most important metric to any marketer.
In addition,Marketing Evolution analyzed 19 studies across a number of categories including automotive,pharmaceutical and packaged goods,and found that when it comes to purchase intent,magazines are the most effective medium for advertisers across the categories.
Topic 5:Digital
Without question,we have never had an annual conference where so much time and discussion was focused on digital.Undoubtedly this is a reflection on the increased important this subject has with U.S.publishers.
MPA Chair Jack Kliger said our industry sees digital more as an opportunity now and less of a threat.I couldn't agree more.Time Inc.Chairman and CEO Ann Moore said that we can sit in a corner and whine about digital or we can roll up or sleeves.Well,I did not hear any whining at our conference.One of the reasons was that the news about digital opportunities we heard was encouraging.
For instance,we invited leading executives from Google and Yahoo to speak.The message they delivered was quite clear:they need us.They asserted that branded content is the key to growth.Yahoo's Rosensweig stated that his company loves magazines because they can partner with them to attract traffic and sell ads.Google's Tim Armstrong maintained that search engines can help close the gaps between magazine brands and their web traffic.And he told us not to worry about getting bulldozed by his company.And I'm quoting here:“Google is notgreat at creating content.It's not something we talk about.”
We also heard from Dr.Jeffrey Cole,the director of the Center for the Digital Future at a leading American university.While he sounded pessimistic about the possibilities of young adults and teenagers developing into hard copy newspaper readers,he was much more encouraging about the magazine industry.He stated quite clearly that magazines in print will always have an appeal.“Some magazines will last forever,”Dr.Cole predicted.He did not say which ones,although I did notice many publishers dashing eagerly to meet him after his fascinating presentation.