Print Advertising Trends For 2017

While digital stands to surpass TV as the No. 1 advertising spending medium in 2017, that doesn’t mean that there’s no room for print in your overall marketing strategy. Depending on your target market and what product or service you provide, you may find one medium to be more appropriate than another. Print is here to stay.

Even so, the trends suggest that there are positive and negative things in store for print advertising next year, and it pays to know what they are since they could factor into your ad spending strategy. Read on to learn about print advertising trends for 2017 so that you can plan accordingly.

1. Print Ad Spending Drop

If you thought that the print ad spending decline had perhaps bottomed out, you would be mistaken. Predictions are calling for further declines in print ad spending next year — perhaps a more pronounced drop than this year. PricewaterhouseCoopers, meanwhile, says that the print advertising market worldwide is projected to fall through 2019. However, despite these declines and the growing competition from digital media, there is still a large print market, says a study from McKinsey & Co.

2. Print Will Endure

Although the trend is towards leaning on technology to create immersive experiences, print will continue to play an important role in advertising. The reason for this is that print has that personal impact that people can touch and feel. When paper and ink come together in a powerful way, the end result is print advertising that resembles fine art. In fact, the Columbia Journalism Review refers to print ads as the “new ‘new media’”

3. Storytelling

In 2017, storytelling will play a bigger role in content marketing, and this will involve not only digital, but also print. The idea of “build it and they will come” isn’t enough anymore. You also need to tell a story that resonates with your audience, and print-based advertising represents an ideal way to accomplish this.

As you prepare to take on 2017, it pays to know what the print advertising trends are. While print is no longer necessarily the first option for many businesses, it does nonetheless play a critical role for others. So there’s no need to adopt an either/or mentality when it comes to ad mediums. Digital, broadcast and print can all factor into your ad spending goals for next year and beyond. Once you consider your offering and your audience, you may very well discover that print, the “new ‘new media’”, packs quite the advertising punch.