Use of ‘innovative’ ad layouts in print during the first half of 2009 was nearly five times higher than the usage same time last year, according to TAM Media Research’s ad monitoring service AdEx.
‘Innovative ads’ is a euphemism for ads that often intrude into editorial space, some examples of which, you can see in a slideshow by clicking on the image or here (courtesy AdEx). From an advertiser’s perspective, innovative layouts offer an opportunity to run a campaign that stands out from regular display advertising in set spaces and shapes. Readers tend to habitually skip a lot of traditional advertising, studies show. Newspapers charge a premium for ‘innovative’ advertising and such campaigns do not have a rate card and are negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
Greater advertiser demand for such campaigns have resulted in increasing tension between media agencies and publishers in the last few years. Media agencies are forced by their clients to get publishers to push the envelope in terms of how bold some ad layouts can get (can our logo replace your masthead please?*) while publishers are caught between maintaining the editorial integirty of their products and saying no to large and powerful media agencies.
“Nine out of ten times, we say no,” said Rajiv Verma, CEO, HT Media Ltd, which publishes Hindustan Times, Hindustan and Mint. “What you see is only what we say yes to, you don’t see what we say no to,” said Verma, adding, “But the readers today are different. If something is vibrant and cheerful in the paper, and doesn’t alter the product itself too much, they don’t seem to mind. Our reader surveys don’t show any dissonance with such advertising.”
The play of power equation between the publisher and the advertiser is evident in that 55% of such advertising happened in non-metro newspapers. Large metro publications have greater ability to say no to a potential advertiser. Some 32% appeared in Metro newspapers and 12% in what AdEx categorizes as ‘mini Metros’.
The top three sectors in terms of usage of such advertising are food and beverages, media (well, talk about irony), and banking/finance/investment, in that order.
“The biggest challenge in advertising today is to break through the clutter and stand out,” said Premjeet Sodhi, chief planning officer at Lintas Media Group. “The result of clutter is ad avoidance by the readers. In such an environment, innovative ad formats help the advertiser to grab the attention of the reader,” he said. Sodhi says publishers are willing to offer more and more due to competition among them for advertising and “people are offering today what was definitely not available a few years ago”.
One publisher said usage of such advertising might have gone up so much because of greater financial pressure during the first half of this year owing to the global economic slowdown. “This was a good opportunity for advertisers to coax newspapers into doing things they would normally not,” he said, asking not to be named as he did not want to upset his peers.
HT Media’s Verma said decision-making on such advertising is always done after consulting the editorial team. “We are very clear. We won’t do anything that affects the sanctity of news in our publications. At the same time, as an industry if we don’t innovate, we will die. That’s evident from what is happening to the newspaper industry in other parts of the world.”
But that difficult line between the acceptable and the sacrosanct seems to be inching in one sure direction. “At one time, front page was considered sacrosanct. At another point, the masthead was considered sacrosanct,” said Lintas’ Sodhi. He left the rest unsaid.
*Apocryphal story: A leading national daily was approached by a big telecom player recently with a request to incorporate the brand into the masthead of the publication. The request was not granted.

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