'A good idea must be usable in all formats'

Interview with Julien Bredontiot & Antoine de Villeneuve, of the La Chose advertising agency in Paris*

newspaper techniques: What are the weak points of daily newspapers as advertising media, and for which you have seen a positive or negative development in the last years?

Antoine de Villeneuve: In my opinion, in the past daily newspapers did not really make the best of advertising concepts, as they were limited to black and white. Colour is now more or less omnipresent in daily newspapers.

As regards the choice of media, this is usually up to the customer and must be respected by us. Unfortunately, we only rarely choose the carriers.

nt: What are their strong and weak points at this time in relation to creative possibilities for newspapers?

Julien Bredontiot: The negative aspect: Bearing in mind that the printing quality in daily newspapers is rather mediocre, in general it is necessary to favour words over the image.

The positive aspect: Printing quality is improving continually, especially with the advent of colour in the majority of daily newspapers. Moreover, daily newspapers have the major advantage of being close to the news, therefore allowing them to react simply and immediately to developments in France or in the world. As a final advantage, because they are published on a daily basis, it make use of advertising teasers from one day to the next (usually consisting of putting a question on the first day and supplying the answer on the following day.)

nt: How do you think that newspapers could improve their image as advertising media?

A. de Villeneuve: Perhaps by allowing advertisers to work with inserts (on high-quality paper) or put product samples inside the newspaper, in order break with the offputting ‘paper product.’ I think that would have a very positive effect on the product, helping it to get more notice.

nt: All over the world, daily newspapers are adopting different sizes with the change to Berlin or tabloid formats. Does this format change have an impact on ad design? Does the fact that, in a given country, daily newspapers are produced with different formats (ranging from broadsheet to tabloid/A4) cause a problem for the development of a campaign?

A. de Villeneuve: Bearing in mind that, usually, advertising concepts must be applicable in multiple formats (4x3, posters, Internet banners, single pages, two-page spreads), the format variations in daily newspapers do not represent a major problem, just an additional criterion to take into account when designing the ad. A good idea must be usable in all formats, that is the rule.

* They were on this year’s list of European finalists for the annual Best Yet competition (http://www.bestyet.org) in which design artists younger than 28 years old compete in the area of advertising campaigns in daily newspapers.