Why classic media could be the cure for digital fatigue

Brands should respect the consumer’s need to switch off from digital, writes Ian Reynolds, CEO at KBH On-Train Media

From the moment we wake up to the minute we go to sleep, we are bombarded by digital messaging, both by choice and unwillingly. There are signs that consumers are beginning to tire of the digital onslaught and are increasingly looking for a digital detox away from the glare of a screen.

Digital has the power to make our lives better; to make us more connected, enable us to make decisions easily and provide us with the freedom and flexibility to run businesses outside the normal 9-5 and fit in with our lives.

However, digital advancements have also been recognised as a key contributory factor to our stressed out, hectic lives as we become a constantly ‘switched on’ nation. The average person checks their smartphone 85 times a day and we spend a total of five hours online – around a third of the time we are awake.

However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a large proportion of us are looking to switch off and detox from digital. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for advertisers and brands.

Digital ads have breathed new life into many advertising sectors, but they are not without their own unique set of issues. According to Meetrics, UK digital ad viewability hit its lowest level in 18 months, falling to 47% in the second quarter of 2016, down from 54% the previous quarter.

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Meetrics also discovered that viewability (an online advertising metric that aims to track only impressions that can actually be seen by human users) in the UK is more volatile than other European markets due to a high penetration of programmatic and automatic ad buying, costing advertisers a staggering £700m every year. It’s an obvious point, but you can’t ad-block a static billboard or rack up bot views on a print ad.

The appetite to ‘switch off’ from digital is further reinforced by the nation’s movement to consume classic media. The Economist recently reported profits had surged to more than £60m last year. How was this achieved?

By focusing on pushing its premium print subscriptions, with subscribers up 27%, proving there is still an appetite for classic media, especially when accompanied by a digital counterpart. It was also recently reported that when print and digital are combined, they ignite a multiplier effect, targeting diverse and rich audiences, further reinforcing the ‘print is not dead’ argument.

This nostalgic need for us to revert to traditional media can also be seen with the revival for vinyl records. Contradicting our expectations, vinyl sales now generate more income for musicians than YouTube hits.

This year, vinyl sales grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2015 with more than 2m LPs sold in the UK – the highest amount since 1994. In addition to this, digital book sales dropped by 11% last year, highlighting another migration to a classic format.

The appetite for traditional media clearly highlights a consumer demand to spend time unplugged and switched off as well as super-connected. So how can brands provide a solution to this and engage consumers, while still driving digital advancements?

An alternative can be found with classic media. As consumers we have become adept at picking out and editing brand messages which are relevant to our lives and personal interests. Brand overload can often deter our audience, however classic formats respect boundaries – there are no privacy concerns from a Traincard or static 6-sheet.

Classic advertisement also enables consumers to ‘opt in’ to digital prompts at a time and place of their choosing, delivering benefits for both brand and consumer. The brand can control their messaging in such a way as to target consumers on their ‘down time’ and build brand awareness. Consumers have the opportunity to ‘switch off’ and purchase products at a time that suits them.

To make both classic and digital formats deliver to the optimum, brands and advertisers need to find more creative, joined-up ways of complementing classic formats with their digital alternatives. The convergence of mobile and OOH is highlighting the effective mix of the old with the new.

A static ad may promote a brand’s event hashtag, encouraging the user to find out more information on their smartphone or tablet at a more convenient time. Digital and classic media are natural bedfellows and should support each other rather than compete for the attention of the consumer.

Consumer behaviour and demands may have drastically changed over recent years thanks to the rise of digital, however our appetite for nostalgic, traditional media like hardcopy books and vinyl records highlights that classic formats still have a key role to play in today’s advertising industry.

By integrating classic media into their campaigns, brands can respect the consumer’s need to ‘switch off’ and enable them to take a well-deserved detox from digital.

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