Ad Age Brand Campaign Offers Originality in a Sea of Digitality

By Alice Lam:

In the NY Times Article "Ad Age Campaign Offers a Look at a Road Not Taken," Ad Age is creating a saucy print advertising in hopes of increasing viewership.  In this day and age, it is almost refreshing to see a print ad because everyone has gone digital.



In the last few years, Ad Age has made a lot of pivots to remain competitive in the industry.  In September 2012, Ad Age redesigned its format.  In January, Ad Age reduced its number of publications from 46 to 26.  Ad Age has also created memberships for those who want to attend live advertising events and an app for the younger generation.  With all these different channels, Ad Age have certainly casted a wider net but has also created a more diluted message.  Ad Age is now going back to its roots by messaging their brand to its customers, who now consist of marketers, creative, digital and media companies.

As many businesses go after the "better, faster, more" approach as they try to be competitive in e-commerce and internet, it is important to remember that the customer is human after all.  People want to hear stories and buy from those whose stories they like.  That is why Smorgasburg does so well.  People get to interact with the vendors and understand how the business got started or how the product got sources.  To this day, Amazon.com still debates whether it should have a brick and mortar store because they want people to experience their brand.  Birchbox, a beauty brand that uses a subscription model to sell their monthly sample boxes has agreed that using pop-up stores in Manhattan has created a better brand experience for their customers.  Instead of thinking about the HOW (i.e. how we do it faster, better or more), we should also be thinking about the WHY (why does a customer want to buy our brand?)  It is the WHY that creates a stickiness, the customer lifetime value that will make it hard for the incumbent to enter.

 The slick campaign Ad Age is a great reminder that 1) the brand is still important 2) going after different channels may confuse the customer 3) it is important to remind customers of the core values. Ironically, the campaign for print ads are done less often that this form of advertising almost looks original. The campaign really does resonate. Ad Age has done a great job in creating a clear message to customers and the print ad as a teaser to find out more about Ad Age by creating a website of videos for the audience to go to. Besides, it is always fun to how people started out.

 Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/business/media/ad-age-campaign-offers-a-look-at-roads-not-taken.html