IF you haven’t read about News Ltd’s new ‘Think Outside the Rectangle’ creative book, it’s worth catching up on our news blog here.
To summarise, they have produced a high-quality publication that showcases innovative ads that have featured in their newspapers. They’re issuing a challenge to creatives to use new techniques that extract more value from the newspaper medium.
By Brett Taylor, Editorial Coordinator, PANPA
I, for one, commend the publisher for putting this together. It’s an impressive product and I’m sure they’ll get some benefit from it.
There’s no reason why the rest of the newspaper industry can’t benefit from it as well, should it help spark a bit of an industry wide re-think of advertising in newspapers.
Who says advertisements have to be in square boxes towards the bottom of the page? The notion of rigid, rectangular modules that separate the news from the ads is obviously down to a convenient consistency for a publication – one shape, one design, one price, repeat. It is also pleasing for the editorial department to have their content neatly separated from – and uninterrupted by – those pesky ads.
But that notion has to be redundant, especially when you consider the limitations of newspapers compared to the interactive, animated, audio-assisted ads that can be delivered online. Newspapers shouldn’t be limiting the effectiveness of their ads any further than the medium inherently dictates.
I don’t want to sound overly critical here. It’s not just papers who need to refresh their outlook. The traditional delivery of TV advertising baffles me. 30-second ads, packed into 3-minute timeslots, show after show, night after night. There are very few variations on this; there’s the occasional minute-long ad, or a 15-second one, or some in-show scrolling advertising (usually by the network promoting its other shows, or for cold drinks during the cricket).
What about some two or three-second long ads squeezed between scenes during a show? This might work for something like Pizza Hut during an evening show like Neighbours in Australia. Imagine a quick, almost subliminal shot of someone biting into a tasty slice, with the Pizza Hut logo and URL below them, popping up between one scene and the next.
If this is thought to be an irritation to viewers, maybe they would be appeased by a net increase in show-time and decrease in ad-time should these super-quick ad shorts attract a premium rate that are worth more than the normal 30-second slots.
That is one possibility off the top of my head, but surely something, anything, that challenges the status quo would be worth trying or at least considering.
Consider KFC’s marketing in the past few months. I’ve noticed that basically every month or so, the fast-food retailer hits the small screen promoting a new product. This new hotrod/snack wrap/chicken taco/whatever is basically the same raw ingredients – popcorn chicken, cheese and BBQ sauce – delivered in a new way.
The new products last for a limited time. But their appeal is the response in the consumer, which I take to be: “Look at that new thing, I’ve got to try that at least once!”
It’s innovation for the sake of innovation, and I assume it works (they keep doing it, after all).
I think there’s a lesson for newspapers in this. The sorts of ads in News Ltd’s big book of ideas, and indeed those shown at PANPA 08 by Mario Garcia, are worth trying, for the same reasons KFC’s strategy works.
People are intrigued by new things, things that are out of the norm. Look at the ‘curiosity pieces‘ that register endless hits on newspaper websites…people are curious beasts. People will see circle ads, triangle ads, J-shape ads, smelly ads, and pay attention to them because they are different. And, if the ads are weird enough, they’ll talk to their friends about them, snap them with their phone and share them online.
Newspaper ads that break the mould can be successful purely because of their mould-breaking nature. And the beauty is, all that needs to change is the newspaper’s mindset. These ads rely only on creativity and hard work in the layout and design. No new technology or infrastructure needs to be purchased to make them possible.
If you really think about, it’s almost cheeky that newspapers will charge significant premiums for uniquely shaped ads. I’m not saying they shouldn’t – of course they should! They should take what they can get in the current climate. But in theory, advertisers will have to pay extra just to unlock the full potential of the newspaper’s pages. TV doesn’t charge extra for ads with sound, or colour. Clients will essentially pay more for a change in mindset.
By unshackling their pages, which are just ink on paper, newspapers can unlock a whole new world of attractive opportunities for advertising.
Tags: news ltd, newspaper advertising
