Magazines Reap Most Ad Value Per Minute

Ed: Too little, too late.

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Magazines Reap Most Ad Value Per Minute

Magazines have 5.5 times more ad influence relative to the time spent with them, a multiple that is higher than for any other major media, according to an analysis of consumer time spent with media conducted by the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), writes Media Buyer Planner.

The study is an attempt to make the measurement of advertising more meaningful by linking time spent with a medium directly with advertising outcomes.  The study assigns a score - or Ad Value Per Minute - to valuate the time readers spend with the advertising in each of the major media.

“One of the things that is important in understanding how advertising works is to separate the consumer relationship with the medium from the consumer relationship with advertising in the medium,” said Ellen Oppenheim, CMO of the MPA. Very often, she said, people look at time spent as a leading indicator of advertising engagement, rather than time spent with the advertising itself.

To help marketers address this issue, the MPA linked time spent with media to ad impact by using third party sources. The resulting metric, dubbed the Time-Ad Impact Ratio, can “help marketers to evaluate time spent in a way that aligns with their desire for better results,” said the MPA.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the MPA discovered that magazines index with more than twice the impact of TV, online or radio, and are considerably higher than printed newspapers.

The Time-Ad Impact Ratio shows the following rankings, which differ significantly from those that exist if time spent is examined in isolation (without regard to results):

• Magazines emerge as the leading medium with 5.5 times more ad influence relative to the time spent with magazines on an average day
• Newspapers rank second with 4.9 times more ad influence relative to time spent
• The internet has 2.5 times more ad influence relative to time spent
• TV has 2.3 times more ad influence relative to time spent
• Radio has 1.1 times more ad influence relative to time spent

Oppenheim acknowledges that the studies are based on consumer perceptions about media rather than behavior and are therefore a guideline and not a gold standard nor a potential currency.