Geico

It's interesting when you start to take notice of changes in marketing communications for companies over the long run. Take Geico as an example. They used to be placing a large portion of their marketing communications budget on TV ads. Now you rarely see a Geico ad. Though take a look in just about any magazine, and you're pretty much guaranteed to see a Geico ad. So why the change? It may be slightly cheaper to run a print ad than a TV spot during a prime time show, but print ads can still be expensive. Take a look at any company's media kit, and you can see that print ad rates can easily run $40,000 for a half to full page ad for just one magazine issue. Though when you get into magazines with more prestige and more readership, rates go up. For example, Forbes magazine is going to cost you $135,730 for a full page color ad in one issue. That's expensive! And that's just one ad. So cost is still high. Back to Geico again... perhaps they're changing they're finding new ways to reach their target market, find it easier to convey their message in a print ad (remember print ads have the benefit of being a self-paced medium so users can easily read them at their leisure and come back to them too), or a host of other things.

As you are seeing ads, take notice of the medium they are using and how that changes over time. Can be quite interesting and telling about the company too.