How the Telephone Can Save Print Media

IOVOX along with many of our print media customers beg to differ. Why can the telephone not provide equal metrics and analytics as the internet? It is about time that the telephone evolved and caught up with the internet - it is no longer the poor older brother! 

The telephone can be used to make print advertising as sophisticated and accountable as online marketing. 

I think the majority of people will agree that without information, commerce is virtually impossible. Many of the internet's huge monetisation opportunities and stories have been based on this principle. Take companies like Google who realised this as they monetised the web. It is now possible to give phone calls analytical value! At IOVOX we do this with our voice platform that has opened up voice to everyone in a similar manner as the web did to the internet. 

It's all well and good us claiming this can be done and that the telephone can save the print world etc. but we should prove this with some examples: News International, the UK subsidiary to News Corp which publishes some of the UK's most popular titles e.g. The Times and The Sun. By using the IOVOX platform and embracing the telephone News International have created a new advertising model that is proving to be incredibly successful. News International use a unique local telephone number for every advertisement. It is not uncommon in the newspaper industry for advertising to be left unsold leading to 'dummy' ads being used to fill space. In such circumstances News International could now give away advertising space at lower cost or even for free, as long as the advertiser paid commission on each call generated - essentially replicating the online pay-per-click model. In addition to the new pay-per-call model is detailed analytics. Attached to each number are tags which allow anything they wish to be tracked e.g. newspaper section, advert size, colour etc. etc. Whenever a response to the advert is received through the telephone News International are able to track and understand. News International and their advertisers are now able to audit calls and see how successful their phone communications are. 

The new advertising initiative has been incredibly successful for News International with campaign revenues overall significantly increased. As a result this pay-per-lead model is being increasingly used not only to fill unsold space but as a regular advertising product. Jon Benjamin, Head of Sales Innovation, says: "the change in model and the use of the telephone has been a great help in successfully growing our innovative advertising product and significantly helped us increase its revenues." The only downside to this model for News International is if they are not able to deliver calls to their advertisers - without calls they don't make their advertising revenues. This potential pitfall works the same online with pay-per-click so is not new to publishers. For News International this has happened on a few occasions but overall the model has increased campaign revenues significantly - we would love News International to allow us to give you the exact figure, it will blow your mind! 

This use case is being increasingly used by other media groups in the UK from Newspaper and Magazines to both online and print directories. Wherever a direct response to an advert can occur through the telephone advertisers can now advertise knowing they are able to get full circle metrics, calculate accurate ROI and even increase revenues. 

No longer is online advertising and response channels the best places and channels to advertise - the telephone is just as accountable so don't forget it and leave it behind! If large corporate such as News International can utilise the telephone in a similar way to the internet then surely the telephone can be used to 'save' the print media!