I work at an advertising and public relations agency, and on a daily basis, I hear the words “traditional” and “online” advertising mentioned. So, I ask: which way is better and in which direction should you lead your clients?
On Tuesday, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report stating that online ad business (excluding mobile ads) is set to expand to $34.4 billion in 2014 from $24.2 billion in 2009.
Newspapers, meanwhile, continue to suffer from a decline in advertising revenue. According to numbers released by the Newspaper Association of America earlier this year, print advertising revenue dropped 28.6% in 2009 to $24.82 billion. The PWC report estimates that print advertising in newspapers will decrease even further to $22.3 billion by 2014.
“Although the Internet did not fully escape the impact of the recession, its decline in the United States was much less severe than that of other advertising media,” the PWC report notes.
The report also indicates that in 2005, the broadband penetration in U.S. households was at 34%. Currently, an estimated 64% of households have a broadband connection! The study notes that the federal government’s allocation of $7.2 billion of the stimulus plan for the expansion of broadband services, as well as the increasing availability of triple-play packages (i.e. those which bundle Internet service with television and telephone services) are catalysts for growth in U.S. broadband access.
So, what does that mean for your company? With the various advertising mediums changing, it is important to become even more focused on who you want to reach and how you want to get in front of those audiences.
How do you reach your targets? Do you believe that Internet advertising works or do you think you should keep with more traditional methods? Or perhaps the answer lies within a good mix of both…
Tags: broadband, Internet, Newspaper Association of America, online advertising, PricewaterhouseCoopers, print advertising revenue, stimulus plan, traditional advertising, triple-play packages