Portada interviewed the most important print and digital media buyers in the region, who shared their opinions with us about the current state of media buying in the region and their projections for 2011. We talked about the amount of investment in different media platforms (print and digital) and whether these percentages will remain steady in the future.
Carolina Adriasola, Business Manager of Grey Chile, believes that traditional print media has remained stuck, and is losing ground to digital media as a result.
On the other hand, Adrian Barreiros, Account Group Director for MEC Argentina, says that print media, along with TV, are the pillars of the Argentine market.
Marisa Cavero, Managing Director of Universal McCann Peru, agrees with Adrian Barreiros and believes that print media does not intend to cannibalize itself, saying that most of them have their own digital editions and that the strategy is one of complementing, rather than substituting print.
Omar Baquero, Direct Partnerships & Media Buying Manager for Harrenmedia Mexico, believes otherwise. He thinks print media should seize the opportunity and jump on the digital bandwagon.
• Portada: How is the print advertising sector faring in comparison with previous years?
Carolina Adriasola, Grey Chile: "Print media needs to evolve in the short term to counter the explosive demand generated by digital media, where newspapers, portals, and mass campaigns (ATL) have assumed greater prominence in most clients’ marketing budgets. The cost per contact is lower and can be measured immediately, allowing for the quick correction of messages or campaigns if these are not in tune with your target group. As a result, traditional media has remained stuck, without offering any new deals or structures to capture the attention of not only the viewer, but also the sender."
Adrian Barreiros, MEC Argentina: "Print media, and especially newspapers, are ? along with TV ? the two pillars of the Argentine [media] market. Regarding readership, a year of international crisis in 2009 and a 2010 that preceded a presidential election, resulted in increased interest for immediate information via the Internet and greater depth coverage through print. The challenge for print media will be to continue building value for those who set aside time to read, and a business challenge to produce more and better customized products for their brands."
Marisa Cavero, Universal McCann Peru: "It has grown at the investment level, but I think that is because there are new advertisers and the overall advertising pie is growing. It is now up 28%, compared with the same period between January-August 2009."
Omar Baquero, Harrenmedia Mexico: "Ad sales levels are lower, and we’ve seen a trend among advertisers to spend increasingly less on print media, yet more on digital. However, it is an opportunity for magazines and newspapers to think about migrating to digital, because ultimately, it's the content that matters to readers."
- Portada: Is print media advertising losing ground as compared to digital advertising?
Carolina Adriasola, Grey Chile: "Absolutely, because the current user profile is now one of an Internet user with greater digital knowledge, who communicates through social networks."
Adrian Barreiros, MEC Argentina: "Print newspapers in Argentina still have a readership volume that is four times larger than that of digital media. But print media has shown a 10% year-on-year fall in readership, and a 2% fall in circulation, while total digital media has grown an average of 30% year-on-year. From a commercial standpoint, this phenomenon has not been reflected because digital media content still captures a low portion of the budget, only a tenth of what is dedicated to print. Digital trends are still helping to make it more convenient to do combined media buys which include print."
Marisa Cavero, Universal McCann Peru: "No, because most print media have their own digital editions, and the idea is not to cannibalize, but rather complement their operations. A newspaper such as El Comercio may lose subscribers, but draws increasingly more readers to its online edition, thus not reducing its media capacity. On the other hand, investment in digital media is still minimal in Peru and is mostly taken up by the yellow pages."
Omar Baquero, Harrenmedia Mexico: "What is losing ground is the way media is consumed. There are fewer readers using print, while more web users are gravitating to online media."
- Portada: Which of your customers do print media buys? Have they increased their budgets in this regard?
Adrian Barreiros, MEC Argentina: "For strategic reasons, such as segmentation of specific target groups and the image value conferred by print media, advertisers such as automotive brands, credit cards and banking services continue to engage with current and prospective clients through a strong print media presence, and increased their budgets by an average of 30% compared to 2009."
Marisa Cavero, Universal McCann Peru: RIPLEY, GM, MasterCard, Univ. Cesar Vallejo, and Imagina. Their budgets are managed according to the location of their respective target audiences, so I'd say the media mix used is becoming more integrated every day and this can cause the share to vary, but not the total investment."
- Portada: How do you split your media advertising, percentage-wise, among the various media?
Adrian Barreiros, MEC Argentina: "The Argentine Chamber of Media Centers’ studies on this topic since 2002 show that, from 2006 through 2009, print media overall has garnered a little less than 40% of total ad spending in our country. This trend remained the same in 2010."
Marisa Cavero, Universal McCann Peru: "In Peru, the breakdown for ad spending in 2010 was: 59% TV, 7.5% cable, 19% newspapers, 9% radio, 3% magazines, and 2.5% inserts. Unfortunately, IBOPE-TIME, the official source, does not take into account Via Publica or other digital media [in their figures compilation]."
Omar Baquero, Harrenmedia Mexico: "According to various sources, between 2008 and 2009, online media advertising increased from 2% to 3.53%, while newspapers and magazines lost ad ground, from 9% to 7.20%, and 9% to 7.99%, respectively. It is clear where the ad spending is moving to."
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