Campus Newspaper Advertising is Underrated -- Google and Kokanee Didn't Think So.


source: blogscoped.com

Student newspapers are a hidden gem for advertisers, here is my causal explanation:

We know that, it's under-used and not well understood by the ad industry,
therefore, it has reasonably cheap ad placements,
therefore, it attracts low-budget advertisers,
therefore, it is an opportunity for advertisers with larger creative resources, to stand out!

Erin Marchak, the business manager in charge of ad placements for Golden Words, Queen's University's renowned comedic newspaper, has given me precious insight on how it all operates. Local advertisers usually contact campus newspapers directly whereas most "most of [their] national advertising comes from Campus Plus which is [their] "multi-market" client, they deal with national advertisers that want to target multiple universities around Canada."

The Nuuuuumbers


A 2007 Campus Plus study found out that:
  • 86% of Canadian students read their campus newspapers
  • 95% of all full-time students have read at least one of the last four issues of their campus newspapers
  • Pass along readership for campus newspapers is estimated at 3.7 readers per copy
  • Each paper is picked up and read an average of 2.7 times by the same person for approximately 24 minutes

3 +1 Advantages of Advertising in Campus Newspapers
  • High visibility and reach according to the numbers
  • Targeting students at a time where their focus level is high
  • Excellent branding tool
  • Greg Sterling's thoughts on the subject

Here is Erin's pick of an ad that is both creative and relevant. I love it!

From Golden Words Vol. 40 Iss. 22 (March 15, 2006)

My Recommendations

  • Leverage newspaper advertisement with other ad medium.
  • Ads will draw students' attention with out-of-the-box creativity, geographical relevance and current issues references.
  • The shorter the better: only display one message per ad.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would depend on what you want to achieve with the target audience after all what you want is to sell the oduct or idea right ? I especially like advertising that offers me something. Many TV, radio, magazine and newspaper ads that are out there are just yapping on about how their product is great.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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