News
Creating human connections across all channels.
Traditional channels are not dead.
As a modern digital agency, Bader Rutter lives a digital-first culture every day. We help our clients understand the complexity of channels and advertising in the digital space. While digital is, and will continue to be, a majority of our clients’ paid-media spend, our collective experiences over the past year and a half have been reminders about the importance of human connections across all media channels.
At the beginning of this year, a prediction for 2021 was made in a Forbes article:
“Companies will over-automate and over-digitize, putting them at risk of being a commodity with little-to-no differentiation from their competitors. The less contact a customer has with a company, the less opportunity for the emotional connection that drives customer loyalty. Smart companies will recognize the balance between the digital world and more human channels. Those companies win.”
— Shep Hyken, Forbes
From a paid-media perspective, we’re seeing this play out as we’ve shifted to a “return to normalcy.” There’s been an increase in the use of traditional channels that we predict will continue in 2022. Notably, the out-of-home (OOH) industry saw a 38% increase in ad spend in Q2 alone. While many proclaimed years ago that “print is dead,” the largest consumption of magazines in 2021 was surprisingly by millennials (with 31% reading weekly compared with baby boomers at only 19%). In the radio/audio space, we continue to see a shift with many streaming audio listeners moving to ad-free subscriptions. However, when it comes to ad-supported audio, traditional AM/FM radio still represents three-fourths of the listeners. Because of this, we made a significant shift to terrestrial radio for one of our clients, from 1% of their paid-media mix in 2021 to 6% the following year.
The complexities of the digital market won’t diminish the need for digital advertising. For those marketers looking to find more personal ways of connecting with their audiences, channels that are more traditional can provide that human connection.
About the Author
With over 20 years in strategic media planning and integrated marketing communications, Gina Biel partners with both internal and external client teams to deliver exceptional results-oriented work. Gina’s experience includes cross-channel strategy development, strategic media planning and activation (both digital and traditional), and spearheading performance metrics and analytics.
Her breadth of brand work spans retail, insurance,
e-commerce, home/building products, animal health/pharmaceuticals, horticultural/turf and ornamental, airline, professional services, manufacturing, material handling and logistics, banking, and telecommunications.
Outside work, Gina’s pursuits include anything related to food: growing veggies and herbs, canning and preserving the harvest, testing new recipes on family and friends — and sneaking in an occasional game of Crokinole.