Magazines drive consumers to Web and contribution to the Purchase Funnel.

A new guide from Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) titled, “Accountability: How Media Drive Results and Impact Online Success,” features brand new cross-media research studies from Marketing Evolution and Dynamic Logic, a Millward Brown company, it was announced by Ellen Oppenheim, Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer, MPA. The guide, created for marketers and the advertising, media and research communities, presents an array of independent studies that explore which media and media combinations deliver the best advertising results.

In particular, the guide aggregates new findings from marketing research and consulting companies Marketing Evolution and Dynamic Logic along with the latest research from other third-party sources to offer a comprehensive view of the role of media in influencing consumer purchase decisions and online behavior.

“How Media Drive Online Success”

Presented for the first time in MPA’s accountability guide, Marketing Evolution’s new analysis of nine client-commissioned studies examines how magazine ads contributed to building web traffic. Specifically, the study compares the number of online visits among consumers who saw magazine ads to those of consumers who read different issues of the same magazines without any exposure to the ads. Key findings include:

* Magazine ads had a major impact on building web traffic, with a lift of more than 40% over the control group, on average
* Magazine ads generated web traffic at each stage of the purchase funnel, especially purchase intent.
* Including a URL address in magazine ads significantly increased web visits. When the URL was included, the percent change in visits tripled.
* For the Automotive category in particular, magazine ads had significant impact in driving traffic to the auto brands’ websites—with an average increase of seven points, representing an 85% lift, over the control group.

“Quantifying the significant impact print magazine ads have on driving on web usage confirms multiple surveys that document the vital role magazines can play in this digital age,” said Ms. Oppenheim. “The study reinforces that marketers looking to boost their website traffic or prompt searches on their products would benefit from leveraging magazines as part of their media plans.”

Additional web-related findings cited in the accountability guide include:

* Offline media perform well in driving web traffic and search—often better than online media.
* Media synergy is important, although each medium influences online behavior differently and plays a distinctive role.
* “Qualified” search offers quite different and informative results than “total” search results, which is where advertisers tend to focus.
* When looking at the role individual media play in driving web results, magazines most consistently drive web traffic and search.

“Media That Drive Effectiveness Through the Purchase Funnel”

Dynamic Logic’s newly-released research analyzes cross-media accountability data from 32 studies to determine each medium’s effectiveness through the purchase funnel. The overall findings indicate that:

* Media synergy is important. Three media were better than two, and two media were better than one in generating results.
* The combination of TV and magazines provided significantly more lift than did TV plus online.
* TV and magazines produced the greatest lifts in ad awareness, with each medium contributing significantly more impact than online.
* Magazines were by far the most effective in increasing purchase intent, with a significantly greater point increase compared to the next highest ranking medium in both studies.
* Magazines were the most consistent performer in producing positive results in the most campaigns at all stages of the purchase funnel.

Ms. Oppenheim noted, “The latest findings from Dynamic Logic echo the range of conclusions from other independent researchers that magazines play a prominent role in influencing consumers’ buying decisions, especially in the area of purchase intent, an increasingly key metric for marketers. Not only do magazines consistently perform strongly, if not better, compared to other media across every stage of purchase consideration, they do so in a very cost-effective manner.”

The latest findings from the following research firms and organizations are presented in the accountability guide: Advertiser Perceptions; Affinity LLC; American Advertising Foundation; BIGresearch; CNW Research; Conde Nast Publications; Dynamic Logic/Millward Brown; Jupiter Research; Marketing Evolution; Mediamark Research Inc.; Meredith Corporation; Online Publishers Association; and Starcom Worldwide.

To view report CLICK on link below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):
http://www.magazine.org/content/Files/AccountabilityII.pdf>