People who check the news five or more times a day make up a quarter of the American population. They’re information hungry, consume media often and tend to have more money and more education.
In a political and economic climate where everything is constantly changing, more and more people are checking news websites on their phones. Any sensible marketer would see a no-brainer opportunity there.
Yet many brands are completely withdrawn from digital news. Why? An irrational fear of “brand safety.” But what are brands really missing out on when they don’t advertise on news platforms?
For one, they’re writing off a high-impact audience that makes up a large cross section of the population. Roughly 80.4 million U.S. adults follow the news very closely.
News junkies are more likely to show interest in your brands and buy your products. They hold more favorable views of brands, trusting them more and recommending them to others.
The average “purchase intent” among news junkies is 66% −16 percentage points higher than the general population − according to Stagwell’s Advertising Impact Study, which tested a mix of 20 ads in various formats from 20 brands and major sectors across tech, travel/hospitality, consumer packaged goods, financial services and automotive. (People with purchase intent are defined in the study as those who said they were likely to make a purchase or use services from the brand within the next six months.)
Included in this cross section are the vast majority of the world’s leaders: 90% of CEOs and board members are news junkies, too.
That’s not to mention “exclusive news” junkies − the 37 million people (14% of U.S. adults) who follow the news very closely, but do not engage in sports and entertainment in the same way.
By not advertising in news, brands completely forgo 14% of the adult population. This is a group that shows greater post-ad exposure lift than the average American − that is, bigger gains in brand reputation measurement scores like favorability and trust after viewing an ad. These are individuals who are eager for more information and respond better to ads.
Also, the number of exclusive news junkies is growing. Just a year ago, they made up 11% of the population. Now, more than 7 million U.S. adults have converted – a nearly 3 point jump in the number of news junkies.
Brands that don’t invest in news now are missing out on the opportunity to drive real business results.
We know why brands aren’t investing in news. It’s the overblown “brand safety” movement that turned genuine concern into brand censorship.
It’s the organized coalitions colluding to demonetize unfavorable content. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a now-disbanded advertising coalition that created subjective guidelines dictating what content was suitable for advertising support, is a prime example.
It’s the outdated blocklists that prevent ads from being placed in articles with chicken “breasts” and “shots” and “Ariana Grande.” That means if “breasts” is on a blocklist − a list of keywords brands do not want their ads to appear next to − a harmless, otherwise widely read article about the price of poultry goes unadvertised. Now if it’s a beverage company around Super Bowl time, that’s a huge, missed opportunity to advertise to all the boneless fried chicken fans.
However, evidence is growing that these fears really are overblown. Stagwell’s News Advertising Study, conducted among 50,000 Americans, found that there is no difference in key brand reputational metrics between ads next to shootings and war versus ads next to business, sports or entertainment stories. The risk, and there’s proven to be virtually none, is trivial compared with the reward.
The time to advertise in news is now. Nearly 60% of news junkies and exclusive news junkies follow the news more closely than they did a year ago. Roughly half of news junkies consume more political, economic and international news today.
News junkies have never been a more attractive audience for marketers.
Incorporating news into advertising strategies already drives results. Stagwell has seen 2024 campaigns deliver three times the average return on ad spending (ROAS) since beginning news-focused testing in the second half of 2023.
News delivers three times higher ROAS than other paid media channels for Stagwell’s agency, Assembly. These results mirror what I saw at Microsoft as executive vice president of advertising: News sites were some of the best-performing sites for technology.
Refusing to advertise in news over brand safety concerns is like a grocery store that refuses to carry The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. News is a critical platform for marketers and advertisers. It’s a powerful business medium that reaches highly desirable audiences.
If you’re a chief marketing officer, tell your team you’ve made the decision to treat news on an equal playing field as sports and entertainment. Run the computer models and try out a minimum media buy. Test and distribute the same ads and see whether they’ll work equally well.
Your performance metrics will thank you for it.
Mark Penn is chairman and CEO of Stagwell Inc. His career spans 40 years in market research, advertising, public relations and politics. A globally recognized strategist, Penn has advised world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, founded companies and written two bestselling books. USA TODAY’s parent company, Gannett, is a partner in Stagwell’s Future of News initiative.