The widespread penetration of fast internet connections, smartphones and social media may lead us to believe that advertising on traditional mass media has become a waste of money. Pierre Mizzi looks at the current media landscape in Malta and argues that the death of mass media here cannot be pronounced just yet.

Let me start off by confessing that I am an internet junkie. I have been using the internet for business since 1995. Since then, my company has put hundreds of businesses online and we run many online marketing campaigns using news portals, search, display and social media advertising. So my aim is not to depreciate any of the potential of online media versus traditional ones – rather, it’s to dispel certain misconceptions that we come across in our daily business as professional marketing practitioners in Malta.

The first misconception is that newspapers are dead. True, newspaper readership has plummeted in the past few years as more people are getting their news fix multiple times a day online. But this does not necessarily mean that there is no more room for print media in today’s marketing mix. Yes, we have come a long way from the days when newspaper editorials set the country’s agenda by themselves. But print media still has features that online media can never have.

One of the main tenets of successful marketing communication is to adapt your message across a varied mix of media to reach different social profiles

Newspapers certainly have more credibility than online media and they have the page space and lead time to elaborate deeper on stories in a way that online media just doesn’t. I do not have enough space here to dissect the different social profiles of today’s newspaper readers, but it is obvious that newspapers still have a big loyal following of decision-makers and opinion leaders in our society that advertisers simply cannot ignore without serious risk.

Another misconception is that not many people are watching Maltese television. The current state of play is that not only are consumers more distracted with their smartphones, tablets, game consoles, satellite television, and other home entertainment technologies, but audiences are also thinly spread among the many foreign channels that are on offer every night.

However, with all this going on there are still some mainstay Maltese television programmes that attract mass audiences. This is illustrated in quantitative research that is carried out from time to time and has been proven to us with a variety of campaigns for different clients across various industries.

What has changed is that audiences have become harder to reach as they become more discerning. The number of viewers is still substantial and the audiovisual power of television advertising is still unmatched by anything else online or elsewhere.

Let’s turn our focus to social media, which some people might see as the media that has all the marketing answers. Yes, there are over 200,000 profiles of Maltese people on Facebook and we estimate that at least half of these are active on a weekly basis. Today with as little as €150 to €200 you can reach 100,000 Maltese people in a week or so and you also get the demographic metrics you don’t get elsewhere. However, as much as Facebook puts your advert on this many people’s timelines or walls, it cannot be argued that this is all there is to it. Facebook is another tool in the marketer’s arsenal but not one that can replace others. It offers an excellent platform for interacting with consumers or fans, but in itself and on its own cannot replace other media with completely different characteristics.

What about tastes and habits? Many marketing managers find themselves selecting advertising media (or not) based on their own personal preferences, thinking that their clients would be making the same choices they do. We often come across this when discussing outdoor media as if clients are located only where the manager drives from, and radio as if clients all have the same tastes as the advertiser. This narrow-minded thinking is clearly dangerous especially when you consider that by leaving out some media from the marketing mix, these managers could be eliminating large swathes of consumers from their campaign reach.

Media choices should be based on factual information and unbiased advice from people who work in the industry. A professional communications agency is likely to have experienced results from other campaigns with other clients, so it is ideally positioned to provide reliable advice on such important matters. Also, the agency comes on board with a different perspective from people working within the business itself. This vital insight often comes at no additional cost, so it definitely makes sense to at least consider using it.

One of the main tenets of successful marketing communication is to adapt your message across a varied mix of media to reach different social profiles of consumers in different ways. Even with all the technological advancements of the past two decades, this principle still holds very true today. Social media has given a very strong voice to consumers to share their own experiences, knowledge and opinions, but it has not yet killed the massive power of mass media. As long as television and radio stations are still broadcasting and newspapers and magazines are still being printed, the sensible marketer cannot but include these important channels in the marketing mix.

What has certainly changed over the years is that marketing campaigns need to be devised with a hands-on approach that leaves room for any tweaking that may be necessary as the campaign progresses. Things are changing faster than ever before and the tools we have today give us the power to change tact quickly and with relative ease.

Pierre Mizzi is managing director of Logix Communications Limited, a full service creative agency active across all traditional and online media. For more information visit www.logixcreative.com.