Writing for INMA, Newsworks content and social media executive Lewis Boulton explores how advertisers can make the most of print and digital in their 2022 campaigns
Lots of publications share trends and predictions in the first couple of weeks after the new year. This one is really going to shock you: Digital is going to be big in 2022.
OK, maybe that’s a little too obvious. But then again, do we really understand what someone means when they use the catchall phrase “digital?” Are they talking about social media sites? Streaming platforms for video or audio? News Web sites, blogs, and influencers? All of these things?
As Newsworks research and insight director Denise Turner said in a recent piece, not all digital spaces are equal in the experiences they give to either advertisers or readers, nor in the quality of content they deliver.
“Not all digital display [advertising] is the same,” she wrote, “even though it is often thought of and bought as though it is. Programmatic bidding models strip out the context, leading to lower returns and potentially damaging issues around brand health.”
That isn’t at all to say digital display is bad: The sheer size of the Internet means it can reach consumers across a wide variety of audiences in creative ways. But when all the Internet’s sites and platforms are amalgamated into one concept with little thought to what content they show and whether it can be trusted, sometimes the message can get lost or come across in unintended ways.
Meanwhile, the impending decline of the cookie next year has boosted the attractiveness of large-scale, first-party data services put together by news publishers across their wide-reaching portfolios both on- and offline. Trust is just one of the advantages of both quality print and digital ad spaces, and the opportunities for brands and their campaigns have become harder to ignore.
But what does that creative look like in practice? Click here for inspiration for multimedia campaigns in 2022.
