195 Borrell’s latest survey: Ad spend to rise with newspapers hanging in there

Each year, Borrell Associates, an advertising and marketing research firm with customers across the U.S. and Canada, surveys local advertisers and ad agencies. Participants are invited through the active advertiser lists of various media companies nationwide.

Although companies would need to purchase the local results for their individual markets, Borrell does release to the industry several insights and predictions garnered from the aggregate results.

This week Borrell released the findings of the spring 2023 survey that included 1,938 respondents from more than 100 different business categories. These participating local advertisers from communities across the U.S. responded to over 35 questions concerning the types of media they purchase, plan to purchase, plan to discontinue and how they decide on and perceive the effectiveness of the many advertising solutions available in today's multimedia landscape.

Most are "optimistic" and plan to increase their advertising spend.
In this episode of “E&P Reports,” we asked Corey Elliott, Borrell’s Executive Vice President of Local Market Insights, to unpack the most important data points that impact the news publishing industry uncovered from the survey. During the 20-minute interview with E&P Publisher Mike Blinder, Elliott offered the following significant findings, that included that even though recent political polls show a major concern from most as to the future of the American economy, most of the respondents said they are "optimistic" about their business’s economic future, with 62% stating they plan to spend more on advertising in 2023.

Social media, events and radio advertising lead
Leading the list of the top advertising solutions purchased is "social media," with 60% of the respondents claiming they invest their dollars in these various platforms. 49% said they participate in events and sponsorships to generate new customers.

Radio led the list of legacy media options coming in third, with 47% saying they buy broadcast commercials on a local station. However, when Elliot was asked why such a vulnerable media is so dominant when it is being impacted by competitive mobile audio streaming options for local listeners, his response implied that radio was the last to have its audience impacted by digital competition, giving the industry more time to prepare for the disruption to come. He also revealed that radio advertising retention showed ominous signs within the data, with only 6% of survey respondents stating they would be increasing their spending. And 12% said they were dropping radio from their 2023 marketing plans.

Newspaper advertising spend is holding its own
Elliott broke down the results concerning printed newspaper advertising revealing that print came in with a respectable 6th position on the ad spend category list, with 39% of the respondents stating they purchase space in local newspapers. The good news for these publishers is that the retention numbers for this media are almost the reverse of radio, with 24% of newspaper advertisers stating they will stay or increase their investment and only 12% claiming they will drop the media.

Advertisers need help
Elliott was adamant during the interview that one of the most critical insights revealed by the data Borrell collected and analyzed is that local advertisers are lost when it comes to a strong understanding of how to invest their marketing dollars. But instead of seeking advice and building a relationship with the local media ad representative (or advertising agency), 39% claimed they are resigned to learning how to do it themselves, with over one-third stating they would seek a friend, network contact, employee, or co-worker for assistance.

But when the same question was asked of those respondents who purchase advertising from a local newspaper company, the data revealed even less sense that local media ad reps have the knowledge and ability to supply them with multimedia marketing guidance, with 45% learning on their own and close to 40% from friends and co-workers. When Elliott unpacked these findings for E&P during the interview, he stated: "I swear to God, it's less about the media and more about the marketing. If you can provide me with a transparent, complete marketing plan, I'll follow you off a cliff!”

In this episode of "E&P Reports," we unpack the latest data from the Borrell Associates 2023 Local Advertising Survey with Borrell EVP Corey Elliott. We get a first look and analysis at the reported types of media being purchased and how local advertisers decide on and perceive the effectiveness of the many advertising solutions available in today’s multimedia landscape.