By Chris Hudson, Chairman at HUB
One of the biggest myths surrounding traditional media is that TV, print and out-of-home (OOH) advertising are too expensive. This is a perception that needs to be challenged, says Chris Hudson, chairman of full-service marketing agency HUB.
The reality is that the landscape has shifted significantly. As the digital space becomes increasingly saturated and competitive, traditional media owners are more open than ever to collaborating with brands and agencies.
This creates a significant opportunity for brands targeting the 55+ demographic. According to BARB, this audience watches an average of six hours of broadcast TV every day – more than any other age group – while YouGov reports that more than 30% of self-confessed “TV addicts” are aged 55 and over. Print remains just as relevant. Ofcom found that almost half of over-55s still rely on newspapers as their primary source of news, with 70% of those choosing printed editions over digital. Magazine readership mirrors this preference for print, with YouGov revealing that 70% of consumers aged 55+ would rather read physical magazines than digital ones. For brands looking to build awareness and trust with this audience, traditional media continues to offer unrivalled reach and engagement.
But how do you sell traditional marketing tactics into the board? They’re often hard to measure and can require costs upfront, not to mention the amount of time needed to make the ads.
That’s where the right agency partner can help – as Chris advises below.
Restoring faith in the traditional
“Some of the most challenging clients to work with are those who have previously had negative experiences with traditional media. Often, this means they had a strong media planning strategy in place, but the creative execution of the campaign fell short, failing to deliver the results the planners had anticipated.
If you’ve had this kind of experience in the past, I recommend having an open and honest conversation with your agency. This will help ensure your next campaign is set up for success. Remember, traditional media doesn’t have to be daunting – it’s an incredibly powerful tool to support your business growth.”
Here are Chris’ top four tips to help you execute a successful traditional media campaign:
- Consider your audience
“It’s a cliché that rings true – put yourself in the customer’s shoes. There are countless ways to analyse how your specific audience consumes media, from high-level data tools to Nielsen reports. However, sometimes the most effective approach is also the simplest: just speak to your customers. Whether through a questionnaire or a direct phone call, engaging with them will give you invaluable first-hand insight into their media habits.
For example, I know that my dad probably watches around 10 hours of daytime TV each day and buys the Daily Mail on Saturdays. If I wanted to reach him, TV sponsorship and print media would be the way to go.”
- Keep an eye on the market
“Never lose sight of the market around you or the sector you operate in. It’s crucial to stay informed about competitor activity and use the insights from parallel brands as benchmarks for your own strategy. Even if a brand isn’t a direct competitor but targets the same audience as you, take note of the tactics they’re using and consider how they’re managing to capture attention.
That’s exactly what we did with CareCo Life, a direct mail campaign which was awarded in this year’s Silver Marketing Awards. Rather than simply replicating what competitors were doing, we looked to parallel brands in different sectors. The result was CareCo Life, a quarterly print magazine which combined real customer stories, lifestyle advice, puzzles, book clubs and natural product integration to break down the stigma surrounding mobility products. The results were incredible across both active and lapsed customer segments, with an increased average order value of 79%.”
- Always track ROI
“Wouldn’t it be ideal to live in a world with perfect attribution models that are 100% accurate? As much as media planners would love that, it simply doesn’t exist. While we do build attribution models that play a key role in understanding planning and return on investment, digital campaigns will almost always receive a greater share of the credit.
So, what does this mean for agencies and media planners? My advice is to trust in your agency’s expertise and intuition to interpret data effectively and drive meaningful ROI. At HUB, our data strategists, media planners, and performance marketers work closely together to ensure every campaign is optimised across both traditional and digital media channels. Involving every department from the outset ensures alignment – and makes it far easier to deliver strong results for our clients.”
- Be smart with creative budgets
“Traditional media can come with a price tag that many brands – particularly those rooted in the eCommerce space – find daunting. Unlike a PPC campaign, you can’t simply switch off a print ad if the results aren’t immediate. Likewise, producing a paid social asset is typically far cheaper than creating a TV advert.
Our solution is to ensure clients get the maximum value from their creative assets by making them work across both digital and traditional platforms.
It’s also worth noting that not every traditional campaign requires brand-new creative to drive results. At HUB, we often repurpose existing assets for clients looking to test the waters with TV advertising or sponsorship. Sometimes, it’s as simple as editing existing footage and adding a voiceover in our creative studio, before sending it directly to Clearcast for approval. We’ve completed this process in as little as six days for a client before – from brief to delivery. It’s cost-effective, quick, and removes barriers to entry.”
The power of alignment
“As mentioned earlier, the relationship between digital and traditional campaigns is crucial – and incredibly powerful when it comes to effective storytelling. Tone of voice, messaging, even the models featured in your TV and digital ads – consistency across these elements ensures your audience receives a unified message across multiple touchpoints.
This becomes even more impactful when your creative strategy aligns seamlessly with your media planning, all rooted in a well-defined brand strategy, personality, and values.
What I’m really trying to say is that traditional and performance media are not in competition, and it’s reductive to view them as such. By using traditional media to increase your share of voice and direct your audience’s attention, prompting them to search for specific terms, you can actually help reduce your cost-per-click and improve the overall performance of your digital campaigns. We did this exactly for one of our clients, Jorvik Tricycles, after taking them onto TV for the first time in the summer of 2025. Two two-week daytime TV spot advertising campaigns saw a 600% increase in impressions, a 42% increase in brand search and a 94% increase in revenue.
Link to view Jorvik Tricycles’ TV ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpnktEvfEio
These case studies are concrete proof that traditional media doesn’t belong in the past – it deserves a place in today’s marketing mix. For brands looking to connect with the 55+ audience, it continues to offer unrivalled reach, trust and attention, particularly when integrated with digital channels.
If your marketing has reached a plateau, perhaps the question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in traditional media – it’s whether you can afford not to.”
