eventdrivendaily_whitepaper_032316_low
TRANSCRIPT
MILLENNIALS
AN
DMEETINGSDespite the rise of digital media, event-driven daily newspapers are thriving. Explore why print dailies are here to stay.
EVENT DAILIESA
NDMEETINGS
There’s some truth to the fact that traditional community newspapers face an uncertain future. Consumers can access full news articles on the Internet or just a quick headline in 140 characters through Twitter. Printing and delivery expenses across a wide geographic area are becoming even more cost-prohibitive as well.
Some small communities have actually been successful in sustaining their weekly newspapers — but that’s because readers want to see what’s happening in their towns and communities, and advertisers see the value of reaching a targeted audience.
Likewise, in the B2B arena, convention and meeting daily newspapers remain a critical staple for events, and for good reason.
According to a 2014 Sitecore “Digital Marketing Trends Report: Uncovering the Realities of Today’s Digital Marketing Landscape,” 83 percent of digital marketers still use print as a marketing platform. Additionally, 65 percent of those surveyed said they currently feature trade shows in their marketing mix. The association meeting and print — it’s like peanut butter and jelly.
One is good; more is better
Savvy marketing professionals realize that effective customer reach today extends across a number of
different print and digital platforms. Custom publishing authority and modern content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi maintains publishing isn’t dead. Through his website, ContentMarketingInstitute.com, he tells professionals that over time, custom publishing simply transitioned to content marketing. He reminds followers that John Deere continues to produce the branded magazine, The Furrow. The magazine, which launched in 1895, now has a circulation of more than 1.5 million readers in 40 countries and 12 languages.
“Publishing has never been stronger,” Pulizzi said in another post. “Developing a content marketing strategy has nothing to do with channels until you get at least halfway through the strategy. Print, online, in-person all need to be considered. As for print, I think it’s a huge opportunity. What if I told you that all of your customers would be in one location, and only you could show up and communicate with them? You’d be there in a minute, right? Also, consumer behavior in print has not gone down. People still like to engage in print … yet we’ve
83 percent of digital marketers still use print as a marketing platform . . . 65 percent of those surveyed said they currently feature trade shows in their marketing mix.
2014 Sitecore “Digital Marketing Trends Report: Uncovering the Realities of Today’s Digital Marketing Landscape”
1
The conference meeting daily: alive and kicking. Here’s why...
become so enamored by digital we forgot about print. Big opportunity.”
The secret to print’s longevity
Nowhere is that “big opportunity” more apparent than the meeting daily newspaper. Unlike traditional consumer print, the meeting daily is thriving — thanks in part to the need it serves. Specifically, the live meeting daily allows conference organizers to provide attendees with important coverage of concurrent events, so no one misses the buzz in one session while attending another, thereby providing a fuller event experience. It gives advertisers a targeted reach to the specific community at the event, and it allows meeting organizers to own the content — keeping the competition at bay.
Additionally, the meeting daily provides visible extended branding
for the conference host, provides the platform for making salient points of targeted and key sessions, benefits speakers and complements digital issues by providing further brand reach and extension for attendees who were unable to attend.
Jason Amunwa, director of products for Filament, was quoted in Forbes as saying that ROI has become increasingly critical in evaluating content marketing.
“Engagement is a trendy term these days, but it’s also becoming critical to measure. High-quality content is expensive upfront to produce,
but once published yields engaged visitors forevermore — and engaged visitors tend to do nice things, like subscribe, sign up or buy stuff. If you’re growing your content engagement, you’re growing the number of people doing these nice things!” Amunwa said.
Ultimately, however, content marketing is about sharing an organization’s story with its audience to engage members and lay the groundwork for increased revenue and membership. No matter how the mediums change, the story will always serve as the lifeline to a targeted audience.
Consumer behavior in print has not gone down. People still like to engage in print . . . yet we’ve become so enamored by digital we forgot about print.
Joe Pulizzi, operator of ContentMarketingInstitute.com
4
Ascend Integrated Media Vice President of Sales & Marketing Donna Sanford ushered in the age of digital following a solid print foundation, fully recognizing the strengths of each. Early in the game, most professionals were scurrying to see which was better, allowing Sanford time to make some key observations. Most notably, Sanford says numbers don’t lie.
“From an advertising sales perspective, associations that are being pressured into a digital-only model believe they can simply morph their print into digital and generate the same revenue. However, digital ad revenue drops significantly from print because advertisers will not pay the same for digital that they will for print. For example, a $5,000 spend on print advertising could translate to $500 in digital. If you’re
counting on your digital advertising to bring in the same revenue as your print daily did, it’s not going to happen,” Sanford says.
Second, distribution success isn’t the same with digital as it is with print.
“Distributing a print paper to 10,000 people versus a 10,000-person email will not get the same attention. The rule of thumb is that once the email surpasses two days, people won’t read it,” she says. “With a print publication, you can set it aside — like you do an email — but you have a visual reminder that it’s waiting for you. There’s an anticipation to look through it when you have time, or come back to it when you need it. There’s also the emotional response you get from holding something with tactile ridges or an eye-catching gloss. It’s a satisfying experience.”
THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING
3
The print industry has been the innovative force behind the green initiative. In fact, for the last decade, Ascend Integrated Media has led the charge for green, sustainable practices for its clients. Through key partnerships with print and recycling suppliers, manufacturers and contracts with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified providers, Ascend has become the voice of sustainability in meeting dailies. Today’s recycling and sustainability efforts can be summarized with the following facts:
SPAM emails waste 33 billion kilowatt hours annually. In general, the average person wastes 2.4 times more electricity annually on powering a single computer than the energy used to produce a paper.
Reading a newspaper instead of getting your news online produces 20 percent less CO2.
Even junk mail has cleaned up its act. Seventy percent of all junk mail is printed on recycled paper.
Print is an economical boon to American’s farmers. Nearly two-thirds of the wood harvested for paper comes from family-owned farms, measuring less than 50 acres.
GREEN GIANTS
SOURCES: Environmental Leader, Grow NYC, Arkansas Graphics
ASCEND INTEGRATED MEDIA is one of the most tenured and prestigious convention publishing and sales organizations. Since 1982, Ascend has partnered with associations of all sizes to enhance the meeting experience for attendees and aid exhibitors in deriving a return on their investment by producing high-quality products and services that engage attendees such as daily newspapers, exhibit guides, meeting planners, digital communication tools and sponsorship items, while also driving revenue for association clients through the sale of advertising, sponsorships, registrations and exhibit space.
Barbara [email protected]
Eric JacobsonVice President, Media [email protected]
Tricia WalshVice President, Media [email protected]
ascendintegratedmedia.com