Analog Advertising - What the Digital Pros Don't Tell You

Hi kids, Uncle Jack here today to talk to you about something very weird, a sort of old champion recently become new underdog in the marketing game. We’re referring to “analog” advertising, of course. Any of you born after 1995 might be skewing your heads slightly to the side, furrowing your troubled brows and asking, “But Jack, what do you MEAN analog? Aren’t you constantly pumping us full of information about the importance of DIGITAL?”
Well, the short answer is yes. Because we don’t specialize in analog advertising, we’re sort of shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit with this post. Nevertheless, we owe it to ya.

Back to the Future

Now, without putting you through a course on continental philosophy, we’ll try to explain why analog still matters. The reason analog advertising works so well is because it exists out there, in the world. Which is just a way of saying it exists on, how should we say it philosophically, stuff. And stuff has a tendency to accumulate.
When you have an object made with your name on it, and then disseminate it annoyingly, somebody actually has to destroy that marvelous piece of advertising to get rid of it. At the very least, that means a trip to the garbage bin (or, for the conscientious soul, a trip across town to the nearest recycling center).
All this is much harder than a one click permanent delete. That’s why analog advertisement products tend to stick around. Think of the mountains of business cards all over people’s desks, people’s ridiculous collections of mugs with different “clever” “slogans” on them, the promotional fridge magnets that are always falling off. Think of those infuriating mailers  you always find on your front door handle, which, despite your annoyance, always tend to not only make it inside your house, but also stick around for weeks at a time.
Objects we use daily tend to make great analog advertising platforms, because we’re so hesitant to throw them out. A clever company from Chicago, thought about this when they decided to make 100% compostable grocery bags and sell advertising space on the bag’s side to cover the cost differential to the cheaper, earth-killing plastic grocery bags. Check out the marvelous The Plastic Bag Solution.

Do Something

In this day and age, analog advertising isn’t going to make you or break you. If you were to choose just one platform, definitely go digital. However, if you have a little cash sitting around and want to optimize your advertising strategy, invest in one analog advertising product.
Think of it like your stock portfolio strategy — if you do a lot of high tech, you should cover your bases with at least a little cut of more traditional manufacturing, energy, etc. Don’t want stock tips from us? Come on, who’s your uncle?
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