Press play

Andy Ball, managing director of Balls2 Marketing, talks about the importance of print media in a digital world.

When it comes to announcing anything new, social media appears to have taken over.

For instance, we have all seen musicians take to Twitter or Instagram first to let their fans know when they can expect new music, along with revealing tracklists and artwork previews.

However, Coldplay got the world talking when they decided to announce their new album, Everyday Life, by placing classified ads in local newspapers including Wales’s Daily Post, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, France’s Le Monde, and New Zealand’s Otago Daily Times.

As I’m writing this, news has broken that the British four-piece has also released lyrics to all of the songs from the album in the Otago Daily Times.

This is a stark difference from the age of online, shifting the importance back onto print press.

Releasing the information in this way has meant Coldplay received maximum publicity for the launch of their new album.

It also shows that to reach people who truly care – especially people who have taken their own time to seek out news, rather than just be notified on their phone – newspapers and magazines really do matter.

For those who consume their information online, pictures of the newspapers quickly went viral, with lots of excited chatter about both the stunt and the upcoming album. Coldplay was trending on Twitter, all over Facebook and Instagram feeds, and at the top of many news sites, showing just how marketing works event better when the print world and digital world join forces.