Poor Print Mags: Advertisers Demand Actual Circulation Figures
I know it’s rude to gloat over the misfortune of others. But I can’t help it. Selling online advertising for the past eleven years, I’ve come to resent the hall pass TV and print magazines get when it comes to audience-delivery tracking. Until recently, Nielsen reported TV audiences for 15-minute programming blocks; whether or not those viewers remained tuned in during the commercial breaks — rather than, say, clicking to another channel — was left to guesswork. (Tivo has recently forced issue: Nielsen has begun to roll out viewership numbers on the commercials themselves.)
Magazine advertisers, until now, have paid rates based on average circulation across all issues in a given advertiser’s campaign, not issue-by-issue circulation numbers. Coke, Kraft and Wal-Mart have decided the party’s over (AdAge).
As someone who sold television advertising for 20 years and now sells online advertising I could not agree more. Even advertisers at a local level demand more accountability from online solutions when compared to television. Of course it helps when a client is sitting in bed watching the late news and see their commercial play. First rule of thumb when selling a television schedule to a client – make sure some of the spots air in her favorite television program.