L.A. Times raises the bar on traditional advertising
I came across an article about creative traditional advertising in AdWeek over the weekend that I thought was great. Author Katy Bachman shed light some much needed light on the groundbreaking advertising the L.A. Times debuted last Friday, in which they took the “homepage takeover” concept from web and adapted it to print.
Created to coincide with the launch of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, the front page of the L.A. Time’s Friday’s edition was dominated by Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter character in 3-D.
According to Katy, this is the first time a major newspaper has run this type of ad unit. Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer of the L.A. Times, John O’Loughlin, explains the move as an ‘unusual opportunity to stretch traditional boundaries and deliver innovative ad unit designed to create buzz and further extend the film’s brilliant marketing campaign’.
Though this is the first time we’ve seen a newspaper take this direction, it’s certainly will not be the last. What makes this so cool, is that for a while now, Ad agenceis have been adapting traditional advertising concepts to the online world. Now, for the first time, we are seeing the reverse take place. With the LA Times “homepage takeover” they applied the online concept of re-skinning a page and made it work in print. This is a bold step for the print advertising world that will allow them to stay relevant in these changing times. Kudos the the LA times for getting creative.
What do you think? Will we be seeing more of this in the near future?
This campaign and specific media placement has caused quite an uproar in the marketing community, particularly among staunch journalists who feel the LA Times “sold out” by allowing advertising disguised as a faux front page. The internets are all abuzz about it, with people lining up on both sides of the argument. Unfortunately the LA Times is getting lambasted for its decision to allow this – calling it the “Disneyfication of modern media”.
I say tough cookies, you haters. The media needs to find ways to survive and stay relevant. The very people that are complaining about this are the ones most threatened by the disintegration of traditional print media. And where are they complaining about all this? Yep – online.
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While I understand the position of those who feel this was a “sell out” for the LA Times, I think context is everything. Welcome or not the world of news is quickly changing and as a result the media outlets need to be inventive and ahead of the rest in order to survive, particularly newspapers. Though there is a hot debate around this particular ad I must point out that whether or not the LA Times “sold out” they are now being talked about by a wide range of people and isn’t that usually considered a good thing in terms of advertisement?
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