Advertising (online and offline) works by repetition. The more people learn about your offer, the more of them will buy. To promote your offer from different angles you need a combination of offline and online advertising. There is no way around that. Online will continue to grow, but offline will not disappear. It will only evolve into more online tie-ins. Turning into what I call onfline advertising.
What you call onfline, agencies call Integrated. Typical advertising is divided into Above the Line, Below the Line and Through the Line and are typically concerned with offline (print, outdoor, television, etc). In the industry you refer to online advertising as Digital.
Good point. Though, I think that really works with physical goods. It definitely works with services (pointing at the massive box billboards) but online is still where you engage the service and the offline presence may become less and less relevant/necessary as more and more of your time is spent online.
It works with all products. Haven't you seen the Angry Birds billboards, TV ads, etc? Or the Google Chrome campaign? Or maybe the avalanche of shoppers that walmart sends to customers both online and offline.
Digital products still have a need to advertise offline in the same manner as physical products. Nowdays, it makes more sense to also market offline because fewer people do it.
I'm not saying it doesn't work - just not sure it will remain as effective as it is today or as it was 5 years ago. I think the effectiveness will die down over the next few years.
Repetition is definitely how ads succeed (convert). That said, being both offline and online is good (as you say). However, if more and more of your time is spent online (or a given company's target user's time), doesn't it make sense to create more repetition online? Through different online mediums? Search, display, retargeting (talk about repetition)...
If the likes of Flipboard find a way to bring offline advertisings margins and reach to online advertisers, then maybe.
But the reach of events like the upcoming Superbowl just have no parallel of hysteria and trust in the online world.
We, as humans, are wired to respond to the offline world more than online. That's why tweaks like button placements and colours and users leaving sites that take a micro-second too long to load are such relevant factors online.
Maybe we'll, as a populace, become more comfortable online... but online is noisy and serial. The offline world can be manipulated by our minds to focus or operate in parallel with greater ease.
I agree that offline is changing, but it certainly isn't going away. As a media buyer, we see client's leads from print ads in pennysaver type products coming in sometimes months after placement. Online ads are gone at that point and do not product leads after the fact. Print offers a longevity that online can't.
this doesn't take into account the fact that offline and online are merging together. people are online even when they are offline. a good example of a hybrid advertising approach is this startup: http://enplug.com
Advertising (online and offline) works by repetition. The more people learn about your offer, the more of them will buy. To promote your offer from different angles you need a combination of offline and online advertising. There is no way around that. Online will continue to grow, but offline will not disappear. It will only evolve into more online tie-ins. Turning into what I call onfline advertising.