Despite data proving the effectiveness of advertising in news brands, the industry has “been making poor decisions collectively” when it comes to media spend, according to a panel on Thursday morning
Speaking at Campaign’s annual event in Brighton, Wavemaker’s head of strategic planning UK Elliott Millard said news brands are the only channel that are getting less investment than their ROI deserves. “We’ve been under-investing in news brands,” he said.
Effectiveness expert Peter Field agreed, saying “there is a huge disconnect between the data, which shows very clearly what works, and what is on media plans”.
“We’ve got to get back to following the data and the numbers, to make good investment decisions,” he added. “It doesn’t add up that spend in news brands is down.”
Field talked about the “explosion” of news brand effectiveness since 2016 with the rise of fake news, based on his detailed analysis of the IPA Databank: “News brands have sky-rocketed in importance.”
The reason for this, Field explained, is the impact of trust and quality perceptions. There’s a clear halo effect on advertising within news brands because of the high levels of trust from readers.
Helen Jeremiah, Boots VP marketing, said “trust is incredibly important” for brands, while for her, the “quality of the [media] environment is critical”.
Millard told delegates that it makes sense, “if you’re advertising around credible, quality content, you’ll get more attention, ROI and effectiveness”. He said Wavemaker is making a deliberate decision to invest in quality journalism and encourage its clients to support it.
The panel, expertly chaired by Campaign magazine editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier, agreed that the impact and importance of context is well known, but the industry would benefit from fully understanding and recognising the value of “the trust context”.
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