Marketing and all things related

Marketing Blurb loves print advertising more than the next pundit. We believe that reading print copy is more engaging that passively drooling over a mindless television commercial. But maybe we are wrong. For years, magazines have sold print media buyers on a concept called engagement. Engagement is the somewhat intangible measure of the degree to which readers are involved with the editorial content of their magazine. Typically, this measure includes the frequency of reading and returning to a magazine, and the total time spent with each issue. We don’t mean to suggest that some magazines are fluff, but not every magazine is read cover to cover in multiple sessions by enthusiastic subscribers. But here’s the bad news. According to a recent Starch study of advertising recognition, there was no difference in ad recall between low engagement and high engagement magazines. Ad Age has more (free registration required,) but we are going to keep reading magazine ads and editorial and keep the television turned off—thank you.