Content Analysis (Advertising)

Advertising Differs: A Content

Analysis of Print and Online Media

Ron NewmanFIU Spring 2007

The Importance of Advertising

Ad sales make up 74.2% of total magazine revenue.

Current strategy for magazine is to have both a traditional magazine and Online presence.

Publishers must effectively draw revenue from online ventures.

Drawbacks of Previous Medium Analyses

Online advertising differs significantly from printed advertising

Past studies create one exact for each medium.

Traditional Example  

Online Example

Drawbacks of Previous Medium Analyses

Online advertising differs significantly from printed advertising

Past studies create one exact for each medium.

Comparisons were split into unequal categories - print advertisements and company websites.

Detailed Content AnalysisA research technique for the objective, systematic,

and quantitative description of the content.

1. Online advertisements will focus on high involvement products. Traditional print advertisements will have a large variety of low involvement consumer products.

2. Online ads will concentrate more on brand awareness while print ads will focus more on product specific aspects.

3. The volume and variety of traditional ads will outnumber their online counterpart.

4. This study will measure the amount of synchronization among the traditional ads to see if improvements have been made since Sheehan and Doherty’s (2001) findings.

Hypotheses

Categories Examined

Quantitative Number of Ads Number of Advertisers Size of Ad Location of Ad (Online) Visual Style (Online) Online Link (Traditional)

Qualitative Product Category – The nature of the advertiser’s

business. Product Classification – High involvement, or low

involvement Advertising Focus – What the ad message is

describing or selling – the Brand, Product, Service, or Internet Site.

Advertising Strategy

Secondary Online Ads

Click links or text links

Unrelated Logo links

Drop Down Lists

Magazine related advertisements

Numbers of AdsNumber of Advertisers

Comparison of Ads and Advertisers

761

277237

107

174147

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Ads Unique Advertisers

Am

ou

nt

Co

ded

Online All Ads

Online Premium

Print

High Involvement / Low Involvement

Advertising Focus

Hypothesis – Online ads will concentrate more on brand awareness Print ads will focus more on product specific aspects.

Variety of Advertisements

Synchronization of Advertising

Business and Newsweekly category highly synchronized

Fashion and Men’s Lifestyle low synchronization

Overall, findings much higher than previous studies.

Additional Findings of Interest

The location of online ads tend to be placed on the right side of the screen.

Additional Findings of Interest

Advertising Strategy

Additional Research Opportunities

The study can be replicated to examine niche publications

The focus of the content analysis can be narrowed to a particular subset and broadened

The analysis can be lengthened to a longer time period such as a six month or a year time span.

Different media platforms can be used in this study such as newspapers and PDA’s and Cell phones