Year after year, companies look promotion strategies that get them closer to their audiences. One of the most popular ways to do this is through advertising, which entails paying for space on traditional or digital media, but: is one more effective than the other?

Research conducted by Observatorio de la Publicidad in Spain showed that companies pay for advertising in different media (traditional or digital), depending on their aim. For instance, if they aim at positioning their brand, they will invest in traditional media, while if they aim at creating awareness of their business, they will choose the digital media to do so.

The study acknowledges the transformation of the media into what is known today as content platforms. This benefits companies in their attempt to communicate with their clients, since both media have achieved a global vision that accounts for the immediacy of published content.

Companies’ interest in promotion has positively affected advertising in Spain, an effect that has been driven by the country’s new entrepreneurs, increasing companies that are dedicated to advertising by 8,6%, and generating more employment. This growth has reflected in the country’s GDP, advertising contributed 1.29% in 2016.

The media play a major role for companies that want to become known, be it with product launches, important alliances, etc. In this case, the journalist is in charge of generating the content. But entrepreneurs should be wiser if they want to get their attention, creating additional information on a hot topic, as well as content suggestions to capture attention, the typical “5 Tips To..” may be useful and easy to print. Of course there is no formula, this is just a call for content to be appealing and useful.

In Latin America, the scenario is not very different. The continent’s online advertising growth is remarkable. For example, last year, promotion for the Olympic Games was heavily focused on digital media and social networks.

This online advertising boom has generated new and more direct ways for companies to reach their clients. That is the case of influencers, which have transformed the industry; generating income by 100 million dollars and a projected growth of 40% for this year.

Nowadays, brands are focusing on innovating their strategies to approach their target audiences. A piece with the company logo is no longer enough to be remembered by and to sell products; what needs to stand out is the audiovisual content with different narratives to capture the attention of users, blogs or platforms in which clients may speak freely about the product or service. To the extent that some companies take into account their users’ comments on social media in order to come up with and air their advertising campaigns, this scenario reminds us that information is not only meant to be enjoyed and remembered by consumers, but also that they are the ones who set the trends.

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