With newspaper advertising, the environment makes all the difference

It has been proven that printed content stays in the mind better. Advertisements in regional daily newspapers therefore benefit from cognitive engagement with the articles. But what influence do different editorial environments have on the impact of an advertisement? In order to investigate the specific effects of the interplay between advertising and environment, the Score Media Group created two fictitious brands from the pharmaceutical and smart home sectors and tested the impact of the ads in different editorial contexts: once in an environment tailored to the ads (Score Media Content Match) around the topics "common cold" and "smart home" as well as on newspaper pages with no reference to content. With this test arrangement, it should be possible to reliably attribute the advertising impact to an environmental effect.

The results show: The environment makes the difference. The combination of an editorially relevant environment and ad significantly increases the attention and impact of campaigns. Recognition of the tested ads in the content match was 47%, compared to only 43% for ads without reference to the environment. Furthermore, 82% of readers of regional daily newspapers like it when they receive further neutral information about a product, compared to 76% for ads without reference to the environment. A strong 76 percent (without reference to the environment: 55 percent) describe the topic-related articles as added value. As the study also shows, editorial pages with articles that match the content of the advertisement are also read more often than pages without reference (25 percent vs. 21 percent) and are rated significantly better (91 vs. 77 percent).

Topic-related environment activated

In addition to greater attention and increased reading frequency, useful and value-adding environments also significantly increase people's interest in a product or brand. For example, 47 percent of respondents want to learn more about a product after coming into contact with the ads in Content Match (vs. 39 percent with contact to the ad without editorial reference), 40 percent want to visit the website (vs. 34 percent) and 48 percent include the brand or product in their purchase consideration (vs. 40 percent). In particular, the editorial information leaves an impression on almost three quarters of respondents (73%) and helps with the purchase decision (vs. 65%).

"With the Score Media Content Match, i.e. the combination of an advertisement in a topic-related and useful environment for the reader, advertisers can effectively increase the positive effects of their campaign in the regional daily newspaper," comments Andrea Becher, Chief Sales Officer of the Score Media Group, on the results.