Over the past few years, the question of relevance for print advertisements has been brought into question.  In this increasingly technical generation where everyone from preteens to adults spends endless hours on the Internet, do people still take the time to look at print?  Despite the ever-growing power of the Internet, the answer to this question is still a resounding yes.  While the Internet has become a part of our everyday routine, media still remains a powerful and relevant medium.

Today, print still has certain advantages on technology. First and foremost you aren’t at risk of having your battery run out while reading a book.  For this reason books and magazines continue to be utilized today.   Next, you can take print anywhere.  More often than not it is easier to read a physical copy of the New York Times on a train or in a taxi, instead of waiting for Wifi to download it on your Nook or Kindle.  Also, print has been proven to retain its viewer much more efficiently than a digital screen does, according to an article entitled The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper vs. Screens from The Scientific American.  The article goes on to discuss how the medium we read on (print, e-readers, computers) impacts the way we understand something.  Essentially, our brains have a harder time retaining information on a digital screen.

How is this relevant to marketing?  Primarily, it is important to recognize that digital viewers do not retain a digital advertisement nearly as well as a print-based design.  Additionally, the dramatic shift from print to digital has left many marketers scrambling to make the complete transition from print to digital advertising. What many marketers do not realize is that this has made print advertising generally cheaper, and print media has become less cluttered by ads.  This makes it a win-win for consumers and marketers alike, because now it is cheaper to advertise in print, and easier to get through print media without being bombarded by ads.  In all reality, print is far from dead, and seems to be sticking around for years to come.