A fascinating 2015 analysis of 300 campaigns across Europe by Jane Ostler, Head of Digital and Media at Millward Brown, reveals some interesting results for magazine media.

We were asked recently by Magnetic to show the latest thinking and results around advertising effectiveness with regards to key brand communication objectives. We suggested that by looking at the most recent 300+ campaigns we have measured using our CrossMedia research tool, we would be able to disentangle and quantify the impact of each of the channels used in all of the campaigns measured.

We often start by looking at the impact of each channel on the most classic of brand metrics, consumers’ awareness of an advertised brand and/or advertising campaign. What we found by aggregating the findings was that TV and cinema are the best vehicles with which to raise initial awareness, based on each medium’s impact amongst the individuals they reach (as opposed to total audience reach, which would obviously be much higher in total for television).

Once initial awareness has been built, and the focus of a campaign moves on to deepening engagement by communicating more specific and longer messages, magazines is the strongest performer closely followed by newspapers. We specifically look to measure each channels impact on increasing the strength of brand associations i.e. specific attributes of the brand/advertising messages in the minds of consumers.

The next obvious question is to examine how efficiently each channel delivers relative to its share of investment. When we index the each channel’s share of investment against its share of impact, magazines punch well above their weight and are the most efficient at delivering both awareness and reinforcing associations. They deliver a 29% uplift in awareness relative to the share of investment, and deliver a 100% uplift in driving brand associations relative to their share of investment.

We believe that this is due to the trust consumers have in the magazine editorial they read. They see the ads as relevant: they’re not an interruption of content, but part of the offering, and as a result there is less of an issue with ‘advertising clutter’. In addition, this is a medium in which highly engaged consumers can immerse themselves, unlike other media where they might be doing something else at the same time.