November 2016 is full of surprises. On the heels of the presidential election stunner, here’s another: Consumers are continuing to turn to print and digital newspapers when looking for sales and deals at retail. In fact, a new report, the 2016 Brand Impact Study, conducted by AMG/Parade, shows that newspaper advertising is the most relied upon advertising platform when consumers shop for retail sales and deals. This includes ads in the print issues of newspapers, inserts and circulars and ads on newspaper websites, apps and social media sites.
Could this be another example of the prognosticators getting it wrong? While the industry has been relentlessly reporting on its own demise it appears that real people (Americans) haven’t gotten the message -- at least not the real people participating in this research study. Among the specific advertising channels measured, consumers are “very likely” to rely on ads in printed newspapers when shopping (64%) -- outranking all other ad channels -- as well as newspaper inserts/circulars (60%) and ads on newspaper-branded websites, apps or social media sites (46%).