Have you ever heard someone say 'It must be true!I saw it in print!' A single article in a national newspaper can produce more promotional results than a handful of costly advertising campaigns.

Why is this true? Because America loves magazines. This can be seen by simply looking at the facts. According to Oxford Communications, there were a whopping 22,106 magazines in some 308 categories in 2006. This shows that there are at a minimum 310 categories that are of great interest to the residents of the United States of America.

Are We Overdosing on Ads?

Marsha Friedman, Founder of Event Management Services, a national publicity firm focusing on obtaining media attention for their clients says, "In almost all of the 22,106 magazines mentioned above, there are both advertising space and article space available." It's true, many readers do respond to these ads, mainly because they relate to the content of the magazine. Butand here's the big problem with advertisingsince we're absolutely bombarded with ads every single day, it's just hard to focus on them. Here's what Fordham University found:

Advertising is the most pervasive element of the marketing mix: the average family in the United States of four is exposed to 1,500 advertising messages and a daily basis !'

Now that is quite a lot of advertising messages. Marsha Friedman adds, "Every day, each of us see anywhere from 300-400 ads a day, like it or not. The reason? Because our brains will toss it to the side so we can focus on more important items. Does that mean that they aren't there? Absolutely not! As weird as it may sound, we are exposed to hundreds of ads every day that we don't even see!"

Now articles are another matter altogether.

Marsha Friedman adds, "Subscribers to those 22,106 magazines are hungry for information on their favorite subjects, so the articles there (unlike all those ads) are actually welcome. In these cases the audience is more accepting as the magazine is an "old trusted friend." This definitely gives you the upper hand."

"Let me give you a good example of their sheer profit power" , says Friedman. "Early in my career, my position was as sales and marketing director for a money manager. My job was to generate leads and bring in new clients who had a minimum of $100K to invest."

"A journalist from The Robb Report contacted me one day about doing a show on money managers, like my boss. While talking with my boss, the reporter discovered that he lived in the 90210 Zip Code (this was during the height of that popular TV show) drove a brand new Mercedes and was married to a famous actress. That apparently was enough to land a lengthy feature story inside the magazine with his picture (alongside his Mercedes) plastered on the magazine cover!"

Friedman continues, "And then the story came out. The phones were ringing off of the hook! The orders just flooded in!" It was amazing how we went from 20 to 50 million dollars in such an amazingly short time!"

How many ads would it have taken to get him from $20 million to $50 million? Maybe the better question is, could ads have even done the job?If you would like to learn more about gaining national and local media exposure for your company, product or service, without the financial burden of monthly retainers, Marsha Friedman would love to help. Feel free to contact her directly at mfriedman@emsincorporated.com or visit her firm online at http://www.emsincorporated.com. As a public relations expert Friedman has the ability to get the media attention that you desire without breaking your budget with costly monthly retainers .