I have been involved in enough campaigns to know that I am not my target audience. Now that I have passed from my 20s into the 30s, I can no longer claim to understand teenagers and get away with it. But just because I am not the target audience doesn’t mean there isn’t a value in getting into the mind of that audience. Being an interactive marketing person, I love the Internet and use it all the time for research. But for a full immersion in a new world, even I have to admit there is nothing like a magazine (a conclusion being marketed right now by the Readon campaign from the MPA – graphic at left).
In an interview in the recent issue of MediaPost’s Media Magazine, Niche Media Publisher and CEO Jason Binn has strong words in support of magazines:
We’re not billboards. We’re not radio or broadcast or cable. You want to reach a lot of people and connect with nobody, go buy those. With magazines, you’re buying into a world.
It’s the same argument that I have usually used to support the power of the Internet – quite simply because it offers the most relevance in reaching the right audience. But this idea of a world being signified through the content of niche print publications is real. Could I have told you Delta and Kohler are two major faucet manufacturers before starting the process of redecorating a home and purchasing home design magazines? Not likely. Afterwards, I’m a whole lot smarter with far less wasted time hunting and gathering (a perennial down-side to Internet research). The point is that even an Internet professional can sometimes find the best resources in niche magazines to really understand a target audience. Now there’s a conclusion you don’t see on many interactive marketing blogs.
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