Recently, Adobe conducted a study revealing new insights into the beliefs of consumers and professional marketers in regards to online advertising and discovered that traditional marketing is still more effective than online marketing. Attitudes toward online advertising were overwhelmingly negative. This is great news for magazine publishers and their advertisers. The online survey had 1250 respondents who were 18 or over and was composed of 1000 general population and 250 marketing decision makers. The summary of key finding is as follows:

Print magazines and while watching a favourite TV show are the two most preferred places to look at an ad. 45% of consumers preferred magazine advertising, 23% preferred TV, 11% preferred website advertising and a very low 3% preferred social media advertising

Interestingly, while 45% of consumers preferred printed magazine advertising, only 2% preferred to receive advertising messages via their favourite digital magazines. This shows that people like to “unplug” and pick up a printed magazine

Majority of respondents use social media; over half have liked on behalf of their favourite brands, but also wish there was a dislike button for social media

68% of consumers find online ads “annoying” and “distracting” and 54% say online banner ads don’t work. Two-thirds of consumers believe that traditional media including television and magazine advertising and are more effective than online advertising

“Likes” get attention encourage consumers to “check out” a product, but doesn’t translate to sales

44% of consumers feel advertising works better on women than men

Consumers and marketing professionals agree that marketing is valued, strategic to business and paramount to driving sales

Professional advertising is the most effective form of advertising, 27% of marketers believe that user-generated content is the most popular form of online advertising

73% of respondents believe advertising should tell a unique story, not just try to sell, 67% believe in-store experiences trump online experiences and 53% agree most marketing is a bunch of B.S.