In between screaming at the X factor final this weekend (hangs head in shame), I saw a TV advert for The Sun Newspaper. It takes a lot these days for an advert to grab my attention, but this one was particularly cunning. My personal favourite ‘app’ is the pen-touch interface for the games section.
The basic premise is that a ‘handheld’ printed newspaper is just as good as an online version. Those clever folks at The Sun use a parody of the iPhone app adverts to make their point. It does beg the question though that if the UK’s best selling daily newspaper is having to persuade the public to pick up a copy instead of heading online, what does that say about the state of the industry? Or are they trying to pre-empt the threat of digital media? A bit like closing the stable door after Mr Ned / Black Beauty / horse of choice has bolted. It is certainly an interesting tactic.
Here at Metrica a quick poll in our office this afternoon showed that a third of us get all of our news online, myself included. Only 22% of the thirty people I asked read a printed daily newspaper, and the majority (44%) just buy a Sunday paper. This perhaps proves that papers such as The Sun do need to be worried, but will these types of ads be enough to persuade us?
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