It’s an oft-repeated tale — the digital goliaths ranging from Amazon to Meta and Google are suctioning dollar after dollar away from traditional linear media, offering inexpensive targeting at scale. But, a newly released report from the University of North Carolina Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media offers some rosy predictions for 2024.
Specifically, it suggests that news executives and entrepreneurs who understand the opportunity that can come from investment in local media by the state’s ad buyers will make more money.
UNC’s report, “Buyers Unfiltered: Where 2024 Local Advertising Dollars are Flowing In North Carolina,” offers this key takeaway — some 27% of North Carolina advertising buyers surveyed plan to allocate more of their media spend with local media companies in 2024.
That’s good news for savvy news executives and entrepreneurs, the school says. But, how do local ad buyers make decisions, and what do they plan on buying more of in the upcoming year?
To answer that question, the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media surveyed 92 advertising buyers across North Carolina and conducted 15 in-depth interviews over the last three months. “These decision-makers range from small business owners spending under $25,000 to large ad agencies and Chief Marketing Officers spending over $10 million,” UNC says.
The research project was designed to learn how the state’s ad buyers make media buying decisions. “Surfacing this hard-to-gather intelligence will help inform local media operators and executives looking to allocate resources in 2024 for commercial success,” UNC says.
What are some of the key highlights from the report, which can be downloaded here?
- Investments in local advertising sales could generate double digital revenue growth in 2024. 27% of ad buyers plan to spend more of their budget with local media companies. (67% said same and 6% said less)
- Teams that understand annual planning cycles will unlock revenue. 31% of ad buyers allocate their advertising budget annually.
- Content-led pitches grounded in audience insights will close more deals. It’s especially true with digital storytelling as 55% of ad buyers plan to allocate more of their budget to digital and social.
- Publishers can continue to count on flagship newsletters and email products to generate revenue growth. 30% of ad buyers plan to buy more email/newsletter advertising from local media.
- Publishers with paywalls need to address the benefits of advertising behind a paywall, or it’ll be hard to land deals. If a local media company has a paywall, 52% of ad buyers will buy less advertising.
- Niche publishers who know their audience well only need an audience of a few thousand to monetize with large media buyers.
- Professional influencers will have a big 2024 for revenue growth. 43% of ad buyers plan to allocate more of their budget to local influencers.
The UNC report comes on the heels of a Bank of America investor note in which it reiterates its “Buy” rating on Amazon and its $168 per-share target price, while suggesting its introduction of advertising to Prime Video consumers could bring an additional $5 billion in annual revenue to the digital goliath.
