This is something you won't normally see, but I'll share what I'm seeing in print ads.
There is a well-known national magazine that has been wanting my business to run partial page print ads. But the ads normally are in the $10k range. That's 10x what I normally spend on magazine ads, but of course the magazines I normally run in are lower distribution numbers.
Well, they made a sweet offer I couldn't refuse. $2k for the ad I want. Normally you get 10-25% discounts on print ads, more discount the more frequently you run. Call this an 80% discount! And this is after they just gave us a 1/3rd page 'product review' (no charge!).
Can anyone guess that they're desperate for advertisers? And if these guys are in trouble, I'd wager a big part of the magazine industry are hurting deeply as well.
Related, this weekend I spoke with a friend who does import paperwork processing. Basically when you want to buy a pallet of stuff from China, she does the paperwork for your business getting it through customs. I asked how does this year compare to previous years. She couldn't really say the 'volume' change (tonnage imported), but told me that they're down over 30% in year-to-year cases (or the number of individual shipments coming in, so if she processed 100 per week last year, she's got maybe 70 per week now). And this was not a seasonal statement, this was Sept 2016 vs Sept 2017, July 2016 vs July 2017.
As I've said several times, the economy is a hollow shell and seriously due for an implosion at any time.
There is a well-known national magazine that has been wanting my business to run partial page print ads. But the ads normally are in the $10k range. That's 10x what I normally spend on magazine ads, but of course the magazines I normally run in are lower distribution numbers.
Well, they made a sweet offer I couldn't refuse. $2k for the ad I want. Normally you get 10-25% discounts on print ads, more discount the more frequently you run. Call this an 80% discount! And this is after they just gave us a 1/3rd page 'product review' (no charge!).
Can anyone guess that they're desperate for advertisers? And if these guys are in trouble, I'd wager a big part of the magazine industry are hurting deeply as well.
Related, this weekend I spoke with a friend who does import paperwork processing. Basically when you want to buy a pallet of stuff from China, she does the paperwork for your business getting it through customs. I asked how does this year compare to previous years. She couldn't really say the 'volume' change (tonnage imported), but told me that they're down over 30% in year-to-year cases (or the number of individual shipments coming in, so if she processed 100 per week last year, she's got maybe 70 per week now). And this was not a seasonal statement, this was Sept 2016 vs Sept 2017, July 2016 vs July 2017.
As I've said several times, the economy is a hollow shell and seriously due for an implosion at any time.
