Month: April 2016
Aerospace Advertising: What We Learned
When it comes to advertising, there’s one thing we can all agree on — things are changing.
Our month-long look at advertising was filtered through the lens of aerospace marketing professionals who shared their thoughts, experiences and insightful comments.
There were no true eureka moments — some findings were predictable and many a bit surprising — but we did learn a lot and uncovered several valuable takeaways.
While the survey shows that print is still important, the comments add some revealing caveats. Some marketers support print but characterize it as somewhat of a “necessary evil,” acknowledging that it is “unaccountable, expensive and slow,” yet driven by the belief that it is still necessary to reach older decision-makers.
Digital is valued because it is “trackable, targeted, and interactive,” and we are encouraged that marketers value measurement. Respondents are increasing their digital spending and most agree that digital advertising will ultimately displace print. The only real question is when it will happen. The cost difference between print and digital was mentioned quite frequently — BDN predicts that gap will close. As digital demand increases, prices will, too.
The comments make it clear that for the time being, print and digital are both important. As one respondent said, “an integrated strategy involving digital and traditional communications works best,” and this is a position BDN generally agrees with.
With clear goals and a smart strategy, the correct mix of tactics is generally quite clear, and for us, this is the key takeaway. Start with a sound strategy and the tactics will take care of themselves. This complete marketing plan template — customized for aerospace and defense — can help.
To see complete survey results, click here. To view marketers’ preferred publications, click here. And to read respondent comments, click here.
Don’t forget — this listing of 300+ A&D-specific media is a useful tool for advertisers. Download yours here.
Advertisers Speak Their Minds
Part three of our April focus on advertising is a recap of written comments accompanying our survey about “The Role of Advertising in Aerospace & Defense.” The majority of respondents provided written comments. An array of 20 representative remarks, some edited for space and grammar, are included here. To see what your fellow advertisers had to say, read on.
Now, if you don’t want to miss a single comment (and believe us, you don’t), you can download an expanded written summary of what 75 marketing pros really think about A&D advertising.
Meanwhile, here is a recap of how industry marketing professionals responded to our request to “please share your comments about print and digital advertising as they relate to marketing programs for aviation, aerospace and defense.”
We hope you find it as interesting and enlightening as we did.
‘Print is Dead’
“Digital is the way to go. Print is dead. It is old news before it is even published and mailed. Websites that engage the customer base and apps that provide utility with advertisements are a gold mine for us.”
“Targeting options in digital advertising offer much more bang for the buck than traditional print advertising options. I received my new AC-U-KWICK today and promptly threw it in the trash.”
“Print media has become outdated and hard to justify. Digital media is more trackable, targeted and interactive.”
“As a small company trying to displace the big boys, we have our best success with sales letters and road trips. Our limited print ads have yielded zero sales. We strongly feel that traditional print ads (blue sky, aircraft, product shots) do not help a small company break through. But we also strongly feel that a non-traditional campaign combining multiple outlets could. We believe that non-traditional print ads will be more and more effective as our prospects replace their old school vanguards with younger staff. So, we are focusing hard on how to make a non-traditional approach work.”
“Flight International, Aviation Week and other high dollar placements are getting the axe in favor of a more diverse and digital-centric strategy.”
‘A Break from the Digital Onslaught’
“Print has sustainability and is ideal for increasing image and brand awareness.”
“The current generation of decision-makers still relies on print for in-depth reading and information. Digital is fine for transitory news, but not for critical study.”
“There is too much digital advertising through social media and emails, so I ignore it. But with print I take my time and read through the entire magazine looking for information that may help my business. It provides a break from the digital onslaught.”
“Digital advertising is still not as effective as print. There are still too many old school decision makers who are not technically savvy.”
“Print is still the way to communicate to C-suite execs.”
‘We Need Both’
“In today’s market, print and digital advertising must work hand-in-hand in the marketing mix. Online presence reinforces the branding efforts through traditional print media and gives a valuable sense of immediacy to the messages.”
“An integrated strategy involving digital and traditional communications works best. The publications still have influence, and working with them benefits our company.”
“While I still focus primarily on print advertising, I usually look for a digital add-on. This could be a digital copy of the magazine with hot links to advertising, or a banner ad that is included as part of my buy.”
“Print is still a necessary evil, but digital brings much more value.”
“When your marketing challenge is establishing brand awareness, print advertising tied to measurable digital landing pages is still a good investment. For the selling of an established product or service, there are more effective channels.”
‘Editorial Still Beats Advertising’
”The industry as a whole seems focused on placements to say they were in a magazine rather than executing a real strategy.”
“Editorial, whether print or digital, still beats all advertising. Print, when distributed at high-profile industry conferences or trade shows, is effective. Ads in daily or weekly newsletters are also effective. Digital ads and digital directories are my least favorite — there is so much noise on web pages that they go unnoticed, and most of the time they are annoying.”
“For our company, it seems that when new clients find us it always start with a Google search.”
“Advertising helps promote our brand, but direct mailers and other activities engaging customer prospects are most effective in generating/closing sales.”
“Print is unaccountable, expensive, slow and perfect for the bathroom or La-Z-Boy recliner. Digital means fast feedback, video demos, click-through tracking.”
Don’t forget — this listing of 300+ A&D-specific media is a useful tool for advertisers. Download yours here.
Read Additional Insights
For a PDF document with the complete, must-read comments, click the image and don’t forget, we welcome your feedback — so tell us what you think!
People’s Choice: A&D Marketers ID Preferred Publications
Because our industry is served by more than 300 aerospace and defense publications, a comprehensive survey determining individual preferences is simply not feasible.
Instead, to identify and understand trends, we asked an open-ended question: “If you could only choose to advertise in a few industry publications (print or digital), what would they be?” By not requiring respondents to refer to a list of choices, we hoped to uncover trends in a more organic fashion.
Here’s what we learned, based on the number of write-in “votes” (shown below) for each publication, and congratulations to the top five: Aviation International News, Vertical, AOPA Pilot, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Flying, and Rotor & Wing.
So, what do you think of the list? Is it consistent with your experiences? Whatever your opinion, we’d love to hear from you in the comments section and facilitate a dialogue about the role of advertising in aviation, aerospace and defense marketing.
Next Up:
Our series on the “The Role of Advertising in Aerospace and Defense Marketing,” will continue next week as we share verbatim comments from more than 100 industry marketing professionals who took our survey. Watch for it on April 19.
Don’t Forget:
A more substantial overview of survey findings is available here. Also, if you find our blog and other resources to be useful, please share them with a friend!
We asked: Does the future of aerospace include advertising?
Advertising — once the mainstay of BDN’s business — is now a source of ongoing discussion, debate and uncertainty within the Aerospace and Defense industry. Our team routinely fields a great many advertising-related questions from clients and colleagues. We find that in general, people want to know if advertising is relevant, effective and worth the investment — and they often want to know about industry trends and understand what their peers are or are not doing.
This survey, “The Role of Advertising in Aerospace and Defense Marketing,” was designed to get a sense of trends and how advertising is used and viewed in our industry today. Based on more than 150 responses, from marketers covering a broad array of industry segments, it is not a scientific but is certainly suggestive. We hope you find it useful.
Key Finding: Advertising is in decline, and people who once advertised are no longer advertising.
While 93% of respondents said they have advertised in the past, just 72% say they advertise now.
Key Finding: In general, the majority of advertising budgets are increasing or staying the same. Fewer budgets are declining.
Key Finding: The majority of respondents think print advertising is still relevant and effective in our industry, but many are unsure.
Key Finding: While print is still important to respondents, digital is growing in importance, with spending split fairly equally between print and digital.
Next Up: Our series on the “The Role of Advertising in Aerospace and Defense Marketing,” will continue next week as we reveal industry marketers’ preferred publications. Watch for the People’s Choice results on April 12.
Don’t Forget: BDN’s Complete Guide to Aerospace & Defense Media is a great resource for industry advertisers. Download it here.