Reports of classified death greatly exaggerated: Q&A with Peter Zollman
That crinkling and gasping you hear could be the sound of print classified ads folding into their graves. It’s doubtful any of them will have a VU – that’s classified listing talk for a view of the lake. But despite the gloom, there is hope for classified ads in the future, according to one industry expert.
“Video engages your audience, attracts your audience and retains it,” said Peter Zollman, founding principle of AIM Group and Classified Intelligence LLC, which advises several top media companies in Canada, including Torstar Corp., The Toronto Star, Metroland Media Group Inc., Glacier Ventures and many more across Canada the U.S. and around the world.
Zollman led a breakout session at the INK & Beyond Conference entitled New Revenue from Video and Online Directories. The annual conference is put on by the Canadian Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association and took place over three days at the Westin Harbour Castle. Reporter Emily Mathieu caught up with Zollman after his presentation to hear his predictions on the future of classified ads:
ARE CLASSIFIED ADS DOOMED?
The death of the classified ad is radically overstated but newspapers, particularity in the States, are learning they just can’t count on it being an easy revenue stream anymore. The reality is classified advertising works better online…period. So the short liners that had abbreviations and were by nature very tightly crafted in the newspaper don’t work anymore. People want pictures, they want audio, they want video, they want tours. They want lots of information and feedback and that is something you can’t do with print.
SO ARE PRINT CLASSIFIED ADS ON THE FASTRACK TO EXTINCTION?
I don’t think print classified ads are going to be extinct. I think print classified listing ads will be extinct. But there will still be a lot of branding ads. So why work at this company, or come to our dealership because we’ve taken the sleaze out of the showroom, or we’ve got a great new condo development. Not a listing for a “3BDR 2BA condo with Lake VU in DNTN Toronto with FRPL,” which means fireplace. Those listing ads will pretty much go away from print.
WHY HAVE U.S. PAPERS BEEN FARING SO POORLY IN THIS AREA, COMPARED TO CANADIAN PAPERS?
In Canada, the economy is still strong. Canada has not had the real estate collapse, except to a minor, minor degree in Ontario that we have had in so many markets in the states. The automotive market here is holding up a little better because of the exchange rate issues, and recruitment has migrated very heavily in the states but in Canada, it’s still holding up in print. The strongest jobsite In Canada far has to be Workopolis which is owned by Torstar (Corp.) and Gesca (Ltd), so its owned by two newspaper companies.
HOW CAN CANADIAN PAPERS AVOID WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE US?
Well, we work with a lot of Canadian media companies. We would advise them they have to stop thinking about protecting print and they have to think about starting to serve their audiences with things like pictures, video, with more detailed information, building community around classifieds with feedback and forums and content and blogs and user input. All of those things really help preserve classifieds. On the other hand, they are facing a huge threat from YPG Trader and they are facing a huge threat from Kijiji, which is Ebay’s free classified site and it has grown like crazy in Canada.
Photo by Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR ADVERTISING ON HAND-HELD OR MOBILE DEVICES?
Advertising on mobile or handheld devices is going to grow like crazy. I think in a few years, a lot of the mobile devices we get now will be free to the user as long as you are willing to accept advertising. Right now, if I get an ad on my cellphone, I pay for it, so nobody is going to send it to me and I am not going to accept it. But if someone said to me we will cut your phone bill in half if we can send you 20 ads a month, I might say that is a trade I am willing to take.
DURING YOUR PRESENTATION, YOU SHOWED AN AMATUER VIDEO OF A COUPLE WHO HAD LOST EVERYTIHNG IN A FIRE. DO YOU SUGGEST TAGGING ADS ON TO THAT KIND OF CONTENT?
Sure, you can run a video ad before, or you can run video after. People will actually watch video ads afterwards. Or you can surround it with banners and buttons and so forth.
DO YOU THINK USERS ARE TURNED OFF BY ADS BECAUSE WE ARE ACCUSTOMED TO AD-FREE CONTENT ON SITES LIKE YOUTUBE?
Absolutely, people don’t like the commercials. On the other hand, people only dislike the commercials they don’t want to see. When you want to see something then you want to see the commercials. When you are buying a car, you want to see commercials about a car. People understand, they may not love commercials but they understand that this has to be paid for somehow. So they are willing to tolerate commercials. The other thing is, when the commercials are targeting correctly, I really want to see it. When I was looking for a cruise, I started to get a lot of cruise ads served on my computer because of behavioural targeting…and one of the ads saved me $900. I really loved that one.
WHEN TRYING TO SEND A MESSAGE, DOES THE QUALITY OF VIDEO MATTER?
Quality of video is a silly issue. You don’t want to represent a brand badly, but nobody watched the video from Virginia Tech and said I am not watching that because the quality was bad. It was remarkably compelling. The quality of video is dependent on how compelling the video is. You don’t want to make yourself look foolish but neither do you have to spend hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars when a low quality video will serve the same purpose. I don’t think people should be setting out to make bad video. I don’t think you need to be a television videographer anymore to do a very capable job.
VIEWERS ARE INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICACED. DO YOU THINK THEY’LL BE TURNED OFF BY SOMETHING ATTACHED TO A MAJOR NEWSPAPER OR TELEVISION NETWORK THEY COULD MAKE AT HOME?
No I don’t.
WHY NOT?
Because I think people are understanding of the nature of costs. I think if I was watching a poorly shot, poorly edited video for Rogers it would be an embarrassment for Rogers. But if I was watching an inexpensively shot one that was done well, [that's different.] I was watching an inexpensive video clip of a fire in rural Nova Scotia. I am thrilled to watch it because it tells me the story I want to see and the fact that the quality of the video is not high is perhaps slightly relevant but not nearly as much as I get to see what I need to see.
SO IT’S BETTER TO HAVE AMATEUR VIDEO INSTEAD OF NOTHING AT ALL?
I think it’s a great way to engage your audience and give them an outlet. If I’m the local paper in Yarmouth, Nova Scota, I’d much rather have any user’s videos on my site, rather than YouTube. I think people now expect movies and moving pictures and the only way for newspapers to participate is to get engaged and get involved. It doesn’t have to cost millions of dollars or hundreds of thousand of dollars. You don’t want to embarrass yourself but you are better off getting involved, getting engaged and getting better rather than staying out of the picture. I think people have to understand that the advertising world is changing, that the audience is changing and the ways people engage and interact with their media are changing. And you have to participate and learn and grow as this evolution, revolution is underway for all of us. It’s kind of cool.
