IAB: Media Buyers Boost 2024 Ad Outlook To +11.8%

Catalogs are a tried-and-true instrument in a marketer’s toolbox delivering an in-depth product experience right to any home or office door. With the rise of the digital age, many thought that e-commerce would supplant catalogs, but the opposite has been true. Catalogs continue to hold their own as a marketing channel operating steadily alongside its digital brethren. Catalogs originated as a method to communicate product availability and highlight new goods. Now a company’s website functions in the same capacity and in real-time. Catalogs of today have evolved to serve as a means of inspiration, allowing consumers to visualize products in real-life situations with thoughtful detail and narratives. They also allow brands more room to tell their story and gain consumer trust. This can occur because, unlike the more frenzied pace of online shopping, catalog readers spend between 15 minutes to 30 minutes turning the pages and catalogs are retained for several weeks as a reminder to place an order, shop online, or visit a store.

Dilly dilly. I’m lovin’ it. Get a Mac. Why is it so easy to rattle off the brands that introduced us to these catchphrases? Because Bud Light, McDonald’s and Apple are among the best at telling stories, catching us off guard and even making us laugh. They understand the power of a campaign and how disruptive a “big idea” can be. And how powerful it can be—helping us consider their products for the first time, or again in a whole new way. But for a campaign to reach—and disrupt—the most people, it must be executed across all touchpoints (in digital and in print).

At a time when greenwashing is emerging as an important issue on Madison Avenue, the Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE) is planning two industry events to discuss, educate and develop guidelines to help advertisers, agencies, PR and lobbying firms to build awareness and prevent it. The events follow a week of Congressional hearings about the practices of big and independent agencies and PR firms paid by fossil-fuel companies to distort what they are actually doing to about the climate crisis, as well as the release of a Congressional report citing examples by divisions of big agency holding companies, including Interpublic’s UM unit’s work for ExxonMobil. This also follows Interpublic’s decision to revise its policy of accepting new business from fossil fuel companies that don’t meet its own climate and ethical standards.