Browsing through Slideshare the other day I stumbled across an amazing set of slides by Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications. The presentation is entitled “Marketing in a Recession” and focuses on what actions businesses should be taking to make the most of their marketing budget during this current financial crisis.

The content is compelling, well presented and I’m sure the oral presentation that went with it would have been a great listen.

In a press release during January this year the NAA reasserted the continued growth of online newspaper properties. Up over 60% in the past 3 years.

“Newspaper Web Sites Average More Than 67 Million Visitors Each Month in 2008; Web Audience Grows 8.6 Percent in Last Year’s Fourth Quarter”

There is a small glimmer of hope for those media companies that have yet to adopt digital media, after having print advertising budgets shrink for the 10th straight quarter, perhaps these companies will finally look to the web as an opportunity for growth. During 2008, over US$5B was stripped from newspaper advertising budgets and given the current financial instability it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the speed of this decline increase throughout 2009/10.

For those media companies who have already adopted digital media and made it an integral part of their business this serves as an affirmation that their investments and continued support of digital channels and a digital business model can/will bring them important new revenue streams.

Now is a great time for news and media companies worldwide to adopt digital media channels and look for innovative ways to increase revenue and provide value to both their readers and advertisers. For so long advertising in print media has been an unknown quantity, it worked, it got advertisements in front of readers, but lacked a transparency and measurability that has become paramount for marketers and ad buyers in the middle of a financial crisis.

I look forward to seeing how media companies manage 2009.

Browsing through blogs today I came across an advertisement for Moxi, a DVR system. It’s message was simple, understated, and made me want to know more. 

I like the above advertisement, it’s so simple. The first line provides me a background and understanding of what the advertising message is about. There are a lot of consumers who still couldn’t tell you what a “DVR” is… but a “TiVo” we all know TiVo. Once we have established what we are talking about, we build on that knowledge and present something better, with a link to learn more about this new product. 

I clicked… I want to know what a Moxi is, and why it’s better than a TiVo. Play on those product associations in your own industry and you will reach a lot more consumers. 

Back in late November TechCrunch ran a story on the continuation of the newspaper industry “death spiral” noting that industry advertising had been down for 10 straight quarters with over a $5 billion shrink occuring in the first 3 quarters of 2008. 

Whilst the numbers for the 4Q08 haven’t been released yet by the NAA it is fairly safe to assume they are not going to paint a pretty picture. 

In Asia however, it is a slightly different story, with print advertising continuing to grow quarter on quarter up until now. 1Q09 is expected to be flat but whether or not this will mark a turning point in the growth of print media in this region has yet to be seen. It is often considered that Asian news and media companies are a good 4 to 5 years behind the trends displayed in the US and Europe, which is certainly true in an online sense. 

3 months ago I wouldn’t have been all that surprised to see print advertising in Asia rebound, but with the deepening economic crisis globally it will be extremely hard for marketers to continue to invest in essentially unmeasurable print campaigns. This marks an opportunity for early adopters in the Asian region to take an initiative and through education of marketers use this as an opportunity to seize additional revenue and market share online. 

Only time will tell, but my recommendation to my Asian clients is to start thinking about strategies to educate your marketing clients and convince them to look at investing a larger percentage of their budgets this year into online properties.