Newspaper Advertising - The Creative Potential: The world of newspapers

slower, newspapers have vigorously set about reinventing themselves and
finding other ways to reach a growing readership.

In 2004, worldwide newspaper circulation increased by 2.1 per cent to a
daily total of 395 million copies, with average readership estimated at
one billion people daily, according to the latest annual statistics
published by the World Association of Newspapers and
ZenithOptimedia.

The number of daily newspapers worldwide, including free journals, grew
by 2 per cent in 2004 to 6,580 titles. Advertising revenue rose by 5.3
per cent, the best performance in four years. "It's positive because
there's a lot of room for growth in developing markets and this year
there's growth in mature markets as well," the WAN spokesman, Larry
Kilman, says.

The growing competition between media has forced newspapers to change up
a gear. Although advertisers have not always taken advantage of the
opportunities offered by new editorial products and the quality pages
coming off the presses, some clients have continued to put press at the
top of their brand-building and tactical advertising agendas. Volkswagen
produced probably the most celebrated ad campaign of all time back in
1959 with Bill Bernbach's "think small". Its newspaper advertising is
still selling cars and cleaning up at awards ceremonies, not least
winning the 2004 Cannes Grand Prix for press with DDB London's
"cops".

The UK has produced some memorable newspaper campaigns in the past few
years, such as Saatchi & Saatchi's ads for Club 18-30 and, more
recently, Lowe London's work for Tesco, which won gold at last year's
Campaign Press Awards.

The French have also produced some landmark press work recently.
TBWA\Paris has been nothing short of a creative phenomenon. It scooped
the Cannes press Grand Prix twice in five years - once in 2005 for its
EMI music piracy awareness campaign and in 2003 with Sony
PlayStation.

However, the vice-chairman and chief creative officer at TBWA\ France,
Marie-Catherine Dupuy, believes the approach to newspaper advertising is
not distinct in each market so it is often hard to guess where a
campaign originated.

Despite the international honours often going to France or the UK,
agencies in South America, South Africa, Australia, Singapore and
Thailand among others have been rewarded for their creative press work -
just look at the press gold Lions at Cannes. "Press is still the core of
advertising," Matthew Bull, Lowe's worldwide chief creative officer,
says.

South African agencies such as the independent The Jupiter Drawing Room
and TBWA\Hunt Lascaris are renowned for the creativity of their press
advertising. Jupiter's award-winning work includes a campaign for Nugget
shoe polish, which won at Cannes in 2005. The market for newspapers in
the territory is strong and growing - newspaper advertising revenues
increased by 15 per cent in 2004. Bull, who started out in South Africa,
says: "It's a very strong market, pretty much because there is less
money to spend on TV. With TV, people tend to use much more research,
then dumb things down. They are much more adventurous with print."

While Dupuy argues it is difficult to tell where campaigns for global
advertisers originate, JWT's worldwide chief creative officer, Craig
Davis, cites two countries on different continents that he feels are
producing more than their fair share of the world's best newspaper ads.
"The strongest print markets in the world are Brazil and Singapore. Asia
generally is the potent force in print and the standard of thinking,
execution and finish is extraordinarily high. Both Brazil and Singapore
understand that print advertising needs to be thoroughly surprising and
entertaining."

Although it is impossible to generalise about the Asian sector, there
are some extraordinary newspaper markets in the east. Japan is a law
unto itself, with six of its daily papers in the world's top ten
according to circulation. Newspapers account for 60 per cent of
advertising expenditure in Malaysia and 55 per cent in South Korea,
according to figures from the media agency OMD.

"I think the Asian people are in love with newspapers," Mike Cooper, the
OMD chief executive, Asia-Pacific, says. "The newspaper market is
vibrant and you've got some big, exciting markets such as Thailand or
Hong Kong, which has dozens of different newspapers." Cooper also notes
the region's large number of English-language papers, which are
particularly attractive to advertisers because of their upscale
audiences.

Of course, where an economy is booming, there is a stronger chance that
newspapers will follow the pattern of growth. The executive director of
the International Newspaper Marketing Association, Earl J Wilkinson,
says: "The strongest markets for newspapers are the strongest growth
markets - India and China. Innovation attaches itself to fertile
economic environments, and these will be the two national markets to
watch."

More newspapers circulate in China than in any other country. It is also
predicted to become the world's second- biggest ad market. A combination
of population growth, increasing literacy and economic changes has led
to a rapid rise in newspaper ad revenue.

As recently as 1998, all China's newspapers were government-owned
propaganda organs. Now only half of them remain under some form of
government control.

A number of press groups have been established and declining government
intervention will encourage further investment.

ZenithOptimedia predicts an increase in Chinese newspaper adspend from
$2.27 billion in 2002 to $6.34 billion in 2007 - not far
short of a trebling of revenues in five years.

The story in India is not very different in terms of expenditure, with
ZenithOptimedia predicting a rise from $773 million in 2002 to
$2.48 billion in 2007. In the past four years, Indian newspaper
circulations have grown annually at 4.3 per cent.

Most Indian media businesses are family owned but recent expansion has
attracted overseas investors. Tony O'Reilly, the chief executive of
Independent News & Media, was quoted in The International Herald Tribune
describing India as "the new theatre of strategic investment".

The Asian markets have been attracting a great deal of attention in the
past few years but newspapers are thriving in other markets. Jonathan
Barnard, the knowledge manager at ZenithOptimedia, highlights several
other territories: "The fastest-growing newspaper markets are in the
developing markets of Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and
Asia-Pacific. Russia, Indonesia and Poland are notable examples."

"Newspapers are benefiting from several factors," Barnard adds.
"Fast-growing populations, rising literacy and improved distribution
networks mean more people are reading newspapers and are able to buy
them while their news is still timely. Rising wealth means these readers
are becoming more valuable to advertisers."

Brazil stands out from other South American countries because of its
huge scale. Its 532 daily newspapers put it in third place behind the US
and China, and print ad expenditure is predicted to rise from $665 million in 2002 to $1.36 billion in 2007.

With the Brazilian economy on an upswing, newspaper revenues are set to
benefit.

Kilman singles out several European countries where innovation is
driving newspaper markets. "Perhaps the most exciting European market at
the moment is Poland," he says, "where an already lively newspaper
industry was enlivened by the launch and rapid ascent of Axel Springer's
Fakt. In just 18 months it has become the country's top-selling paper.
The indigenous market leader, Agora, has responded with a launch of its
own. And the market is witnessing a number of other launches."

It is not just the Eastern and Central European markets that are
dynamic.

As Kilman points out, the established European markets are also leading
international developments. "The Independent's successful conversion to
a compact format has inspired more than 70 newspapers around the world
to follow suit," he says. "In the past 18 months, newspapers from Brazil
to Belgium, Norway to New Zealand and Portugal to Puerto Rico are
adopting smaller formats."

The UK newspaper market is one of the world's leaders. As well as being
strong in newspaper design and print advertising creativity - as
recognised by the national ANNA awards - the market is at the cutting
edge of much innovation. Guy Zitter, the commercial director of
Associated Newspapers, says: "The UK newspaper market is the most hotly
contested and vibrant in the world. A combination of geography and
history has given it more and better newspapers than anywhere else on
the planet."

In common with other developed markets, there appears to be a long-term
decline in newspaper readership in the UK but that glosses over other
factors. "In the past year we have seen dramatic innovation," Zitter
adds.

"We've taken broadsheets to tabloids and Berliner. There are more
editions, more free newspapers and more varied promotions.

"Underpinning all this drive is an even bigger investment of hundreds of
millions of pounds by the major players in better full-colour presses
for the future. There can be no more fascinating media
battleground."

The UK newspaper industry's determination to innovate and reward
creativity is mirrored in the US. The Newspaper Association of America
launched the Athena Awards in 1998 as a showcase of creative excellence
in the country's ad industry. Last year's winner was the agency
Cramer-Krasselt with its campaign for the jobs website
Careerbuilder.com.

As in the UK, the US newspaper industry is putting substantial
investment into finding new ways to reach readers. John Kimball, the
senior vice-president and chief marketing officer at the NAA, says:
"Significantly, we are all starting to talk not simply about paid-for
circulation but rather about the total audience that comes to news
through the newspaper's brand. Consider a newspaper, its website and any
other associated products, such as foreign-language papers, free
distribution, real estate magazines and automotive magazines. When you
add up all the people who come to the paper, the total number is not
shrinking, it's growing dramatically."

The US has its share of free, urban papers that target a younger
market.

The Chicago Tribune Red Eye is one successful free tabloid, as is the
Dallas Morning News' spin-off title, Quick. The Scandinavia-based Metro
group is now responsible for freesheets across the world and, with other
newspaper groups joining the fray, this is one development that is
regenerating newspaper readership. "Free dailies now have pole
readership position in Denmark, Spain and Switzerland," Kilman says.
"Nearly twice as many 13- to 24-year-olds across European cities read a
free daily as read a paid-for paper. But the reverse is true among 25-
to 34-year-olds. This suggests freesheets are encouraging a new
generation into the newspaper food chain and they will convert to
paid-for titles in time."

New and younger readers are attractive to advertisers but will they
inspire a new generation of advertising creatives to come up with great
ads?

Newspapers still push buttons in the ad agency hierarchy, despite the
obvious appeal of creating high-profile television commercials. "I think
it's a great opportunity for creative people to show what they can do,"
Bull says, perhaps unsurprisingly given Lowe's success in the medium.
"The new Tesco work is a brilliant use of press advertising. Many
companies - especially those in retail - use press as quick-response
work, but the art is to advertise the brand."

Davis is another fan of newspaper advertising. But he acknowledges much
of the work needs an injection of inspiration to enable it to match the
editorial standards of the newspapers in which it appears. "The single
biggest issue with most print advertising is that it is completely
upstaged by the content around it," he says.