It is no secret that print media has had a difficult few decades. Print media became less economically viable as more newspapers and magazines went digital.

Leading Danish broadsheet and digital newspaper, Politiken, wanted to show the strengths of print advertising and make the medium shine again, so they partnered with Neurons to prove and scientifically measure the effectiveness of ads in their physical newspapers.

Politiken wasn't just interested in understanding how well different print ads perform; they also wanted to see what kind of ads and messages fit the print medium best compared to online.

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Reviving print advertising

Jacob Wæver, Commercial Development Manager at Politiken, approached Neurons to run a Research study to understand the effects of ads in physical newspapers and to explore the relevancy of print advertising.

“The main strength of the newspaper is that people spend more time reading them and pay more attention to its content compared to digital channels,” explained Jacob. “But when it comes to attention, the market only talks about attention in digital advertising, and there were no measurements and solid numbers about physical newspapers. With this study, we wanted to bring print advertising into the conversation.”

Politiken was specifically interested in understanding readers’ attention, emotional, cognitive, and stated responses to print advertising in different sizes, placements, and formats. “Print advertising is our main revenue source, so we also wanted to show the real value of the advertising channel we offer.”

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Measuring readers’ responses with neuroscience

The study involved high-quality eye-tracking and EEG brain scanning in combination with behavioral and stated preference testing. Thirty-five participants who read Politiken at least once per week and are between the ages of 20 to 60 took part in the study. They were exposed to three sections of the physical editions of Politiken while their gaze and neural responses were recorded.

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We also measured the percentage of the ads that were seen and the total time spent viewing the ad. The ads were classified according to size and placement.

After browsing through the newspapers, participants had to do a distraction task followed by a memory test to measure brand recall. In this task, readers had to list all the brands they recall seeing after reading the newspapers.

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Newspapers beat Facebook, display ads, and Instagram

The study showed that print advertising is still an effective element of the marketing mix and secured its place in the future of advertising. Advertisers can leverage successful print advertising strategies and develop effective ad designs by considering some of the key results of the study.

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Highlights from the study:

• Only 29% of readers see and recognize the brand behind the ads. Integrating the brand into the story of the ads leads to higher brand memory and motivation to buy.

• People spend more time viewing print ads than social media and display ads.

• Print ads within context are seen more often (related to the surrounding article, column etc.), and people spend more time on them than ads presented outside their context. Creating ads in the right context builds higher interest.

• Text is very relevant for newspaper ads as readers spend more time reading text than other elements in the ad.

• Ads in newspapers are easier to understand and require a lower cognitive effort than ads in social media

• Ads optimized for digital channels fail in physical newspapers. No one recalled brands that ran “banner ads” in the paper.

• Full-page ads work best if they tell compelling stories with a medium amount of text, while also giving space for product and brand exposure. Medium-sized ads should highly focus on the product with salient branding while keeping copy simple and easy to read. Small ads ​​should deliver one simple message, with a full focus on branding and much less emphasis on the product.

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“Having these results at hand opened up a dialogue that was already thought to be closed,” shared Jacob. “A lot of advertisers decided not to do print anymore, but when we meet them and show them the results, they often end up talking about the opportunities of print and how print could work.” Jacob and his team at Politiken also use the key findings of this study to advise clients and to assure them that they invest in the right channel.

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The study also took center stage at Politiken’s seminar about attention, where Mike Storm, COO of Neurons, presented insights from the study. “We were all surprised that only 29% of people see the brand behind an ad,” recalled Jacob. “It was one of the key takeaways for attendees at the seminar. It is important to understand that we need to make sure that when readers see ads, they also know what brand is behind it.” By learning about the unconscious cognitive and emotional reactions of readers, advertisers could understand what consumers are really driven by, which is key to improving their print advertising.

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Using AI predictions to offer unique value

Politiken went one step further and now includes Neurons' instant predictions as part of their offering and product package. “Neurons allows us to show our prospects preliminary results of their ads and eventually help advertisers benefit more from their advertising investment,” said Jacob.

“We're not only selling ad space, but we're also helping advertisers get the most out of the ads they put in the newspaper or the ads they run on Politiken.dk. We use Neurons' heatmaps and cognitive scores to give recommendations to advertisers to make more impactful ads and achieve better results. Thanks to Neurons, we now have a much closer connection with our clients.”

Both commercial and creative teams use Neurons at Politiken. The commercial team uses it to make recommendations on ads and to deliver reports for clients, primarily on digital campaigns. The creative team that builds creatives for advertisers uses Neurons to justify design decisions and predict the ads' effectiveness.

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Working with Neurons

“With Neurons, we could help advertising work better for our clients,” Jacob summarized his experience working with Neurons. “Even after the first meeting, I felt Neurons was ready to explore. And I was right. They were very engaged in the study we did together. When you invest time and money in a project, it's amazing to see the energy the other party puts in it. We were given a lot of value for our money.”

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To learn more about how other teams boost expertise and conversions with Neurons, Explore and Research, you can read from Schibsted, Monotype & Travel Wisconsin.

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