Have we fallen out of love with digital?

Distrust in a digital world

Trust is the foundation of any solid relationship, especially the one between brand and consumer. Yet there is an inescapable feeling that this relationship is being put to the test by consumers’ growing distrust in digital platforms.

In late July 2018, Facebook’s share price fell 19%, wiping over $119 billion off its value in the largest ever one-day collapse in a company’s value. Three million European users had abandoned the world’s leading social network following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested without user consent or knowledge.

To paraphrase Farhad Manjoo's article in the New York Times⁽¹⁾, it is difficult to show the same enthusiasm we had for smartphones and social networks ten years ago when we now associate these technologies with data mishandling and intrusive advertisements.

As the author identifies, “we have not, as a society, come to grips with the scope of their control over our lives. And we don’t have many good ways to limit it.”

The opportunity for print marketing

Marketers are increasingly aware of this widely shared sentiment among consumers. Digital channels alone are no longer enough for planning targeted marketing campaigns. Print marketing is able to stimulate the critically-important emotional engagement between a brand and its target audience, which is why marketers need to mobilise print in a complementary role alongside digital.

If trust is the key to making a connection with the consumer, then print is well placed to make an impact. According to MarketingSherpa ⁽²⁾, print features prominently among the five most trusted advertising channels:

• Newspaper and magazine print ads (82%)
• TV ads (80%)
• Direct mail ads and catalogues (76%)
• Radio (71%)
• Outdoor signage (69%)

Online pop-ups featured at the bottom of the poll.

It’s clear why people are undergoing a ‘digital detox’ and reacquainting themselves with print. The consumption of digital content is often marred by notification alerts, open tabs, invasive ads and hyperlinks that lead you away from the page you are trying to read. Print instead aids concentration and increases information absorption, a detail too crucial for brand owners to ignore during the campaign planning phase.