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Some have equated the Internet as the most
important media development since Johann
Gutenberg ushered in the age of mass production. Currently the Web is in constant flux as
businesses, academics, and users scramble to
understand its full potential. Clearly, computers
and the Internet will continue to become more
important to individuals’ lives. Nielsen reports
that as of June 1998, 70.5 million people access
the Internet at least once a month (The Industry Standard). These figures show no sign of
slowing down.
The corporate community has taken an
aggressive view toward the Internet, putting
millions of dollars into the development of sites
and research into creating a standardized
approach toward media buying. Although
advertising revenues from the Internet were
only $267 million in 1996 (The Economist,
p. 13), a pittance compared to the billions in
traditional advertising, companies are banking
on the hope that the Internet will become a
profitable place for commerce. Indeed, some
estimate that online commerce may exceed $6
billion a year by the turn of the century (White
and Manning, 1998).
Even though Internet issues such as security
and censorship have yet to be eradicated, money
is indeed being exchanged in cyberspace. For
example, a recent special report in Business Week
reports that 10 million people have purchased
something online (Business Week, 1997, p. 70).
For all the excitement and attention to the
Internet, however, little is known about the
media strategies that advertisers use as they
incorporate the Web into their media mix.
Articles are just beginning to surface that mention the importance – and difficulty – arising
from including Web addresses in more traditional forms of advertising. Peterson (1997) says
that companies are using Web sites in traditional
ads as a way to demonstrate to their customers
that their companies have the latest technology
available.
In addition, Peterson reports that advertisers
are beginning to attempt to think through
strategies of when to include a Web address in
an ad and where to put it. For example, she
reports that the National Fluid Milk Processor
Promotion Board includes Web addresses in ads
targeted at young people, but not to ads directed
at older people. This example suggests that
Corporate Web sites in
traditional print
advertisements
Carol J. Pardun and
Larry Lamb
The authors
Carol J. Pardun is Assistant Professor, Advertising and Public
Relations, School of Journalism and Mass Communication,
University of North Carolina, USA. [email protected]
Larry Lamb is Assistant Director, AQ Miller School of
Journalism and Mass Communication, Kansas State
University, Manhattan, KS.
Keywords
Advertising, Hybrid systems, Mailing lists, Model,
World Wide Web
Abstract
This study attempts to better understand how marketers are
creating bridges between traditional advertising and the
Internet. As such, it describes the Web presence in print
advertisement. A content analysis of 1,249 ads in 20 magazines found: 42 percent included Web addresses; Business
Week ads were most likely to include Web addresses; 98
percent of print advertisements for autos included Web
addresses, while office equipment advertisements (including
computer ads) included Web addresses only 10 percent of the
time; and that 68 percent of Web sites were used to develop
a database of potential customers.
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · pp. 93–99
© MCB University Press · ISSN 1066-2243
93
Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · 93–99
some companies are beginning to develop
strategies that link print advertisements and
Web sites, yet no research has documented the
extent that this phenomenon exists.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to
create a base-line measurement of how companies are developing links between print advertising and advertising on the Internet. Specifically,
this study identifies the categories of advertisers
most likely to include a Web address in their
print ads, the consistency of the Web site in
relation to the original print advertisement, and
the frequency and methods that advertisers use
to develop relationships with potential customers via the Web.
This study is important because communication managers are looking to the Web to extend
the company’s public relations value, the advertising media impressions, and the marketing
opportunities. As the Internet becomes more
accessible, online households will continue to
increase. Companies have to start to examine
what role the Web will play in their media strategies.
Given that the Web has a virtual bottomless
well in which to house information, the traditional lines between public relations, marketing,
and advertising are no longer clearly drawn. A
corporate Web site can be a virtual store for the
company’s products and other marketing ventures, a place to retrieve important press releases, financial statements, and other documents
more usually associated with public relations,
and a way to view advertisements for the company’s related products. This study “stops the
clock,” allowing a perspective of the current
situation in one segment (print advertising)
before heading aimlessly into the plethora of
choices that Web presence offers for corporations.
with other media, but we’re in a learning mode”
(Doyle et al., 1997b, p. 4).
Faigin (1997) offers advice to marketers
interested in developing a presence on the Web.
She recommends that the site be consistent with
other ads and that the Web address be present
on all media messages “to drive consumers to
the Web” (p. 47). Moon (1998) offers seven
suggestions for developing a dynamic Website
including using the Web to sell more products
and services after the initial purchase.
Jerram (1997) argues that advertising on the
Web gives the corporation an avenue for allowing the customer to experience the brand more
deeply than more traditional forms of advertising (p. 38). He also recommends that companies committed to advertising on the Web also
create a strong presence in traditional media.
He believes that the strength in the Web is that
advertisers can use the Web as a “communications channel to forge lasting relationships with
better-informed consumers who seek real information and tangible value” (p. 42). Doyle et al.
(1997b) suggest using traditional media to
promote the Website rather than the Website to
promote the conventional advertisements. They
suggest that savvy companies “sneak URLs into
print and TV ads” (p. 40).
Some writers have indicated that cyberspace
is not without frustrations for consumer and
advertiser alike. Sullivan (1997) has commented on the frustration of visiting Web sites listed
in advertisements. In a humorous essay, he gives
an example of trying to “click through” to the
advertised product. As an example, he says
“Unfortunately, the Internet Solutions icon led
me from the Internet Solutions icon to Internet
Solutions icon, so that my head was, well, like a
spinning logo” (p. 44).
Given the amount of attention that academics have focussed toward advertising on the
Web, it is somewhat remarkable that the vast
majority of academic writing on the Web is
anecdotal rather than empirical. Robinson and
Kaye (1997) offer an in-depth history of advertising on the Web. They discuss the complexity
of the marketing mix, the benefits of online
advertising, and how advertisers have attempted
to measure the advertising effectiveness. They
do not, however, give us any data collected from
specific sites.
Relevant literature
Part of the difficulty in understanding advertising on the Web is to understand what kind of
advertising is being addressed. The divisions of
banner ads and the sites themselves have created
confusion for much of the professional community. A consumer electronics company commented on the flux of advertising on the Web by
saying, “Ideally the Web would be coordinated
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Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · 93–99
Recently, a few academicians have made
some inroads in systematically investigating the
Web, however. Raman (1997) conducted indepth interviews with subjects who browse the
Web. Among his findings are that information is
easy to access on the Web, that respondents
enjoyed feeling in control of seeing material,
and that corporate homepages are viewed as
more than advertising in that they could “get
useful information without being influenced”
(p. 225). Li and Colye (1997) conducted a
survey of Internet service subscribers. They
found that the use of “ad banners, use of the
Web for product information, and prior experience of direct orders have a significant impact
on actual purchases on the Web (p. 229).
Advertising experts have long agreed on the
importance of a mixed-media approach.
Indeed, advertising managers strive for a synergistic approach in order to achieve the best ratio
of reach and frequency. This study attempts to
further define this synergy by attempting to
better understand how marketers are creating
bridges between traditional advertising and the
Internet.
The literature has led to the following
research questions:
RQ1. What kind of presence does a Web
address have in a traditional print advertisement?
RQ2. What categories of advertisers are more
likely to make a connection between print
advertisements and a Web site?
RQ3. How likely is the Web address published
in the print ad to correlate closely to the
product being advertised in the print
advertisement?
RQ4. Does the Web site mentioned in the
advertisement attempt to develop a database of potential customers?
Brotherton (1997) chose magazines according
to circulation because of their broad appeal and
high ad volume (p. 38).
For this study, we chose the top 20 magazines
in the US market ranked by revenues (as reported in The Universal Almanac, Wright, 1994)
because the list reflects advertisers’ collective
confidence in the ability of these magazines to
reach large numbers of readers and hold their
attention on a regular basis. To learn if advertisers coordinate magazine ad content and Web
site content, we needed to use a publications list
that grows from the advertiser’s decision patterns and does not represent primarily the
publisher’s or subscriber’s desires.
All full-page advertisements from the June
1997 issue were chosen for coding. It was decided to choose several magazines during one
month rather than a few magazines over a particular time period for two reasons. First, there
is no baseline measurement of Web presence
and print advertising strategy. Second, the Web
is still in transition, making any kind of study
“over time” difficult. Indeed, the Web is evolving so quickly that to investigate Web presence
in print advertisements even over a one-year
period is questionable. That is, what Web advertising looks like in December of one year may be
radically different from what it looked like in
January. Therefore, we decided to “stop the
clock” at a specific point in time to gain a reading of the state of advertising at that moment.
This can provide a point to compare against for
future studies.
After all full-page ads from the 20 magazines
were selected for examination, a sample of
1,249 ads was achieved. All full-page ads were
included in the coding (even if they were in
more than one magazine) process because we
were concerned with the aggregate presence of
the Web address during June 1997 as well as the
Web presence in each of the magazines. It
should be noted, however, that the vast majority
of ads were present in only one magazine.
The coding sheet for the print ads focussed
on the location (in the body copy, headline, or
as a small “footnote”) and prominence (size and
boldness of type) of the Web address in the ad as
well as the relationship between the presence of
an 800 number and Web address. The coding
sheet also provided opportunity to investigate
the Web site itself. The number of links to get to
Method
Lists of leading magazines ranked by various
criteria (paid circulation, total circulation,
revenues, etc.) are available from several
sources. Researchers use different criteria to
choose their sample for analysis. For example,
Kolbe and Albanese (1996) chose men’s magazines having a high percentage of male readership because they were investigating male
images in male magazines. Huhmann and
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Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · 93–99
the specific product advertised in the print ad
was recorded, as well as the orientation of the
home page (product, brand, or parent oriented). In addition we investigated whether the
Web site attempted to build a mailing list by
searching through the links for any indication
where the browser was asked to leave an address
or email address.
Table I The percentage and numbers of advertisements that include Web
addresses in the print advertisement according to magazine
Magazine
People
Time
TV Guide
Sports Illustrated
Newsweek
Business Week
Good Housekeeping
US News & World Report
Better Homes & Gardens
Forbes
Family Circle
Fortune
Woman’s Day
Cosmopolitan
Reader’s Digest
Ladies Home Journal
Vogue
McCalls
Glamour
Money
Results
RQ1. What kind of presence does a Web
address have in a traditional print advertisement?
Of the 1,249 advertisements coded, 42 percent
(519 ads) included a Web address – a remarkable representation considering that the Web
has only been available to the average computer
user since 1992 (Aikat, 1998). Of the 519 Webincluded ads, 218 of them (42 percent) had Web
addresses that were not incorporated into the
concept of the ad. For example, the address may
have been placed in small type at the bottom of
the page without any copy around it. Of the 301
ads that were incorporated into the copy of the
ad, 243 of them were attached to personalized
copy indicating a personal invitation to a virtual
Web location. For example, it was common for
the copy to read “If you’re interested, please
stop by and visit our Web site.”
Not surprisingly, all magazines in the sample
included advertisements with Web addresses.
Woman’s Day had the least number of advertisements with Web addresses (11 percent), while
Business Week had the largest representation of
ads that included Web addresses (80 percent).
Money’s, Newsweek’s, and US News & World
Report’s advertisements included Web sites over
three-quarters of the time (78 percent, 76 percent, and 75 percent respectively). Table I offers
the complete list of magazines with the numbers
and percentages of ads that include Web
addresses.
Historically, advertisers have used toll-free
numbers in print ads as a way to extend their
presence to the consumer. Has the Web begun
to take over the role previously given to toll-free
numbers? Our research indicates that this might
be the case. Over half of the ads (53 percent) did
not include toll-free numbers. In other words,
toll-free numbers, which have been around for
Percentage
of ads that
have Web
addresses
Number
of ads that
have Web
addresses
Number
of ads
in each
magazine
36
62
30
56
76
80
29
75
25
61
21
67
11
31
45
26
25
24
36
78
22
23
7
19
19
44
21
15
24
54
11
51
7
29
26
19
27
13
30
59
61
37
23
34
25
55
73
20
95
88
52
76
61
95
58
74
107
55
84
76
three decades, appeared in ads at relatively the
same rate as web sites. Web sites have narrowed
the toll-free lines’ head start almost overnight.
In addition, of the 587 ads that did include
toll-free numbers, 60 percent (351) also included a Web address. Only 40 percent (236) of the
ads included a toll-free number without a Web
address. Additionally, 25 percent (167) of the
ads that did not include a toll-free number had a
Web address alone instead.
RQ2. What categories of advertisers are more
likely to make a connection between print
advertisements and a Web site address?
Our research indicates that the category of
advertisement also affects whether the ad will
carry a Web address. Overwhelmingly, autos led
in Web presence, with 98 percent of all car ads
including a Web address. Food was the next
highest category for including a Web address,
but it only carried addresses 51 percent of the
time. Only one out of 29 ads for smoking
included a Web address. (The ad that did have a
Web address was an anti-smoking ad.)
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Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · 93–99
Perhaps most surprisingly, of the 51 ads for
office equipment, only 5 (10 percent) included a
Web address. This is particularly interesting
because many of these advertisements were for
computers and other Web-oriented products.
For a complete listing of Web addresses according to the category of the advertised product,
see Table II.
RQ3. How closely is the Web address published
in the ad related to the specific product
being advertised?
ads at an average of 1.4 links. The longest trail at
4.62 links was with liquor ads. Table III gives
the mean number of links according to category
for all ads that included a Web address.
Second, we investigated how product-oriented the Web page was and noted whether the
page was used to introduce other products. We
made this calculation by noting whether the
home page was parent oriented, brand oriented,
or product oriented. Parent-oriented home
pages focussed on the parent company itself (for
example, a Butterball turkey print ad’s Web
address would take the viewer to ConAgra),
often giving financial information about stocks
and recent press releases about the company.
Brand-oriented home pages presented the
viewer with the brand rather than the specific
product highlighted in the print ad (for example, the Ford home page would present the
viewers with a page full of trucks rather than the
specific one advertised in the print ad). Product-oriented home pages were most similar to
the print ads that advertised a specific product.
For example, after seeing the magazine ad for
Clairol Daily Defense Shampoo, the viewer
To answer this research question, we looked at
two issues. First, we counted the number of
links it took to get from the Web address listed
in the advertisement to the product being advertised. If the specific product advertised was
reached directly from the Web address, that was
counted as one link. If it took more than five
links to try to reach the product, we coded that
as “6” (meaning it was impossible to get to the
product within five links; in other words, it
would take at least six links to reach the product). For all the 509 ads that included Web sites,
it took an average of 2.37 links to reach the
product. When dividing the ads by categories,
the shortest road to the product was with retail
Table II Presence of Web addresses according to the type of advertisement
Category
of advertisement
Apparel
Automotive
Liquor
Office equipment
Services
Drugs
Food
House supplies
Furnishings
Jewelry and cameras
Direct response
Media related
Retail
Smoking
Toiletries
Travel
Other
Percentage
of ads that
have Web
addresses
27
98
47
10
7
29
51
12
22
23
22
23
22
3
22
44
44
Number
of ads that
have Web
addresses
7
160
8
5
9
25
68
6
2
9
11
9
5
1
56
14
53
Number
of ads
in each
magazine
26
163
17
51
127
86
135
50
9
40
50
39
23
29
25
32
121
Table III The average number of links it took to reach the
product advertised in the print ad (to a maximum of six
attempts)
Product category
Average number of
links to reach the
advertised product
Apparel
Automotive
Liquor
Office equipment
Services
Drugs
Food
House supplies
Furnishings
Jewelry and cameras
Direct response
Media related
Retail
Smoking
Toiletries
Travel
Other
2.86
2.29
4.62
1.72
1.99
2.00
2.35
3.17
3.50
2.67
2.55
3.56
1.40
3.00
3.74
1.57
2.19
Total across all categories
2.37
97
Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · 93–99
would enter the Web site listed in the print ad
and find a home page dedicated to Clairol Daily
Defense, rather than Clairol shampoos, or the
company as a whole. In the Web sites we investigated, Web pages tended to be brand oriented
(42 percent) rather than parent oriented (34
percent) or product oriented (23 percent). In
addition, in the majority of cases the Web pages
were also used to introduce other products (69
percent).
RQ4. Does the Web site mentioned in the
advertisement attempt to develop a database of potential customers?
Table IV Frequency that advertisers use Web pages as a way to build a
mailing list
Ways to build a list
Percentage of
advertisers
Number of
advertisers
Does not build a list
Literature request
Purchase product
Contest
E-mail information
Feedback
Free stuff
Other
32
21
4
6
4
24
2
8
162
106
21
30
20
120
8
40
Note: Percentage equals 101 percent due to rounding to the nearest
percentage
Finally, the Web pages were coded according to
their ability to build a mailing list for the advertiser. This study indicates that nearly one-third
of the Web sites did not offer their guests an
invitation to make contact. Imagine a catalog
without an order form or a retail store without
sales representatives. Two-thirds of the time (68
percent), however, the Web site was used to
build a mailing list. The most common ways to
achieve this was through having viewers sign up
for a hard copy of free literature and to provide
feedback through email. A few sites asked viewers to fill out a consumer profile, but most sites
were subtler. Table IV lists the frequencies and
percentages of ways that advertisers use the Web
to build a mailing list.
the scope of this study, but it is a question that
demands further investigation.
Although it is impossible to know if the Web
is indeed replacing toll-free numbers, the fact
that this study shows the Web address is as
important as the long-held method for communicating with customers via phone points to a
possible reduction in attention to toll-free numbers as a way to develop relationships with
potential consumers. Follow-up studies could
give further credence to this argument, if indeed
Web addresses increase in print ads and toll-free
numbers decrease.
More research is also needed to investigate
customer fatigue levels when trying to access
information about the advertised product via
the Web when it takes several links to even reach
the product. In addition, more research needs to
be done on why advertisers are not maximizing
their opportunities to provide extra value to the
consumer via the Web. For example, it was
surprising how few sites allowed viewers to
receive additional information via email. Also,
even though it was common to allow site viewers
to offer feedback via email, the process was not
interactive. In other words, the potential consumer was not told what would happen to the
e-mail, who would read the message, if anyone
would respond to the e-mail, or if any action at
all could be expected.
This study indicates that the biggest winner
in media marketing synergy is the auto industry.
The automakers appear ahead of other advertisers in using the Internet to enhance other advertising experiences. For the majority of these
Discussion
This study has sought to quantify the relationship between traditional print advertising and
the Internet. This issue is important because of
the attention that researchers have given to the
importance of technology and marketing.
Peppers (1995) argues that technology has
paved the way for marketing customization,
which “implies getting customers to teach you
what they want” (p. 3). For quickly as the Web is
evolving into a sophisticated communications
tool, it was surprising to find so many Web sites
that did not allow potential customers to “sign
in.”
It is likewise remarkable that the technology
advanced products advertised (such as computer and media-related products) ranked so low
on cross-advertising strategy. Why these ads
tended to not include Web addresses is beyond
98
Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements
Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb
Volume 9 · Number 2 · 1999 · 93–99
auto home pages, the Web addresses listed in
the print ad took the potential consumer directly to the advertised product on the Web with the
link to the corporate home page for those who
wanted more general information. In addition,
the Web sites were easy to maneuver, yet full of
information. Potential customers were invited
to leave messages, enter contests, find out about
last-minute savings, as well as receive traditional
collateral and sometimes even CD-ROMs.
Indeed, the automakers provided ideal models
for other advertisers wanting to use their Web
sites as a public relations tool to build awareness
not only for the product, but also for the parent
company.
This study provides the beginning for documenting how the Web can work with other
forms of advertising. Future studies should
investigate how these strategies develop. For
example, do the Web sites reflect what the
advertisers recommend for a strong mixedmedia strategy? Why do some corporations take
the viewer to the corporate home page while
others go to the specific product? Is one
approach more effective than another? Who
finds Web sites most valuable: public relations
managers, advertising media directors, or marketing managers?
In order to answer these questions, it will be
important for researchers and advertisers to
begin a dialog on what exactly a corporate Web
page constitutes. In this age of Integrated Marketing Communications, advertisers and marketers alike need to better define the Web site. Is
it advertising? Is it marketing? Is it public relations? Is it all three? If we can begin to answer
these questions, perhaps we can begin to better
understand what to expect when a potential
consumer types www.yourcompany.com
Doyle, B., Modahl, M.A. and Abbott, B. (1997a), “What
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Doyle, B., Modahl, M.A. and Abbott, B. (1997b), “Media and
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The Economist (1997), “Tremble, everyone: whatever industry you are in, electronic commerce will shake you up”,
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Robinson, K.S. and Kaye, B.K. (1997), “Determining the
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Aikat, D. (1998), Dead Tree Edition, UNC School of Journalism
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White, G.K. and Manning, B. J. (1998), “Commercial WWW
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