I don't know about you, but I haven't used the print version of the Yellow Pages in many years!  I get most of my news online now as well. I do still read magazines.

Do these changes in our behavior mean that print advertising has become obsolete for the restaurant industry? What about the wine industry?

According to Rick Edmonds, newspaper advertising revenues continued their downhill slide in 2012, with print revenues dipping yet again while online advertising grew by 3.7% in 2012 and is now about 15% of the total.

Print advertising revenue is now just 45% of what it was in 2006. Although the growth in online ad revenue has been slow.

In my opinion, one of the biggest downsides to print advertising is that it is very difficult to track its success. Also, it's cumbersome, you need a graphic artist, it's slow, and it's expensive.

While online ads are sleek and fast - you can put them up, take them down, they can be changed literally in seconds, and you can track the statistics in real time.

One of my favorite place to advertise has been facebook.  With facebook you can target your audience by age,sex, location, interests, even by employer.  You can advertise an event to your target audience, put a budget on it and walk away in just seconds. Try out different ads and track which ones work best. It's fast, targeted and inexpensive!

For effectiveness our personal best for online advertising is none other than Yelp! (I know it's a love/hate thing).  We get a consistent stream of people who say they came because they found us on Yelp, and while we haven't advertised on Yelp, we do have a check in offer (10% discount) that gets a fair amount of use.

Where do you advertise, and what have you found to be most effective?

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