Eric Ungs

As I was relaxing and enjoying the Iowa vs. Penn State college football game over the weekend, I was shuffling through a recent Sports Illustrated issue. To my amazement I stumbled upon an advertisement for the University of Northern Iowa. My initial thought was, Wow! UNI is not messing around during these tough economic times for national advertising. But then I pondered for a minute and came to a consensus that most likely Sports Illustrated is offering a targeted demographic advertising approach through its national publication.

The direct/targeted advertising made my browsing experience create a whole new intimate connection with both UNI and SI.

With SI’s national presence the ad drew me in to feel a sense of connectedness. I was extremely shocked to see this ad, the ad itself is nothing to hype about but the logistics of the full page placement is very powerful. I am not certain how long they have been doing this or if it indeed was a national ad placement, though I doubt it. This type of targeted placement is what the industry needs in a time where content is moving all online. This could definitely buy the magazine and (national) newspaper industry some more time before the unthinkable occurs.

Am I a little late to notice this concept or is this relatively new? Or was this ad placed in all issues?