Every advertising medium has its idiosyncrasies, important considerations that should be mulled over before choosing a newspaper masthead, advertisement position and advertisement design. Common to all advertising is the crucial importance of ensuring your advertisement intersects with readers cognitive mindset at the moment of encountering the advertisement.
To fine tune this aspect of newspaper advertising it is important to understand the readership demographics of the chosen newspaper, and the characteristics of their interest when the reach the section and position that you have chosen for your advertisement. In the moment that the reader encounters the advertisement, the pre-work in having chosen a clever position and well thought out message and design, come into play.
The section that the advertisement appears can be quite obvious e.g a general marketing advertising for a service clearly should be in the Early General News Section (EGN), or an employment advertisement should be in the professional of situations vacant classified section. However there are choices to be made e.g for training organisations to advertise within the Employment classifieds or the EGN, or a funeral parlour to advertise in the EGN or in the deaths classified section. Other choices may involve whether paying a premium for an early left hand page represents value or not.
The size and shape of the advertisement are also important. Certain sizes and shapes are more likely to be positioned more forward in the newspaper. Some shapes are more likely to dominate a page or be included as the only advertisement on a page. Advertisement shape can also be important to best fit the content you have in mind. For instance the photo you wish to use may be better suited to a portrait advertisement rather than a landscape advertisement.
A further consideration is what size and emphasis within the advertisement should each element of the advertisement be? Should the headline be completely dominant or should your picture sell the advertisement. Here it is important to consider how many other advertisements are you likely to share the page space with. The first battle for your advertisement is to win attention from other advertisements that share the same page as you. Once you have the attention of a reader, it is then important to list the information that a reader will need to make a decision to act, and only that information. Superfluous information is wasted space and clutters your message. It is the most difficult task to decide what information to leave out of your advertisement more than what to put into your advertisement.
We are happy to consult with you to work through the rationale needed to properly plan your newspaper advertisement or campaign.
Please contact us for assistance.
