From left: Gabrielle Sang, marketing manager at Grace Foods; Nicholas Bramwell, category brand manager at GraceKennedy Limited; and Andrew Rousseau, president of the Advertising Agencies Association of Jamaica (AAAJ), in discussion before the start of the creative advertising seminar, Press Ads that Fly Off The Page. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

It was an eventful day for marketing agencies and advertisers yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus in New Kingston, as the Advertising Agencies Association of Jamaica (AAAJ), in association with The Gleaner Company, presented the creative advertising seminar, 'Press Ads that Fly off the Page'.

In keeping with the theme of the seminar, various presenters, including experts from the United States, demonstrated how advertisers could display their press ads more effectively without compromising editorial content.

The event also offered advertisers a glimpse into the rapidly changing world of the newspaper industry, which has been moving to keep afloat in a tech-savvy market.

Newspaper advertisements are generally perceived as one of the most effective forms of advertising and, according to the AAAJ, they are seen by most people as the least annoying form of advertisement with at least 52 per cent of people saying so.

Target audience

Another 33 per cent of non-readers use the newspapers for one reason or another, including for advertisements - making the newspaper an effective medium for advertisers to reach their target audience.

The Gleaner is by far the preferred choice for advertising information, according to the latest Bill Johnson readership survey.

For most advertisers, it was a presentation by Jacob Kelderman, director of ad agency relations at the Newspaper Association of America, that seemed to have been most fascinating.

Kelderman demonstrated that newspapers are, in fact, a flexible medium that, if used creatively, could be even more effective in reaching the advertiser's target audience. He showed, for example, how centrefold spaces could be used to produce creative and effective ads.

"It was very informative," said health promotion coordinator at the National Health Fund, Lotoya Peddie.

"I learnt more about how to capture my audience and your target market," she added.

Earl Wilkinson, who is executive director of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association, demonstrated to the audience how technology and competition were changing the face of the newspaper industry across the globe.

The seminar did not end without giving marketers a chance to demonstrate what they had learnt.

Four of them put their creative juices to work and showed how they could use the day's Gleaner to get their message across effectively without compromising the editorial content of the paper.

In the end, however, it was Janet Morrison and her team from Dunlop Corbin, whose demonstration of a gloomy, but effective public service advertisement on crime's impact on the nation, who took home the prize of a weekend for two at a local resort.

The seminar was chaired by AAAJ president Andrew Rosseau. Executive members Greg McLure and Wayne Stewart moderated the panel discussions which followed the presentations.

For the full presentations please visit: www.go-jamaica.com/adsthatfly