WRITTEN ON April 22nd, 2010 BY chris AND STORED IN Leaflet Distribution

It’s with some amusement that we’ve read the slightly patronising reaction to the news that Google has decided to produce a leaflet.

Newspapers and blogs alike have joined in astonishment at the very idea of a company like Google - innovative, game-changing, envelope-pushing Google - distributing a leaflet in order to get their message out (in this case, the message is The Simple Guide to the Internet, aimed at getting more British people online).

Sky, another major player in international media, will also be using their own leaflet campaign aimed at encouraging 100,000 customers online for the first time.

So what does this tell us about the leaflet that some media commentators aren’t really grasping?

Well, quite simply, it shows that there is - and will continue to be for a long time yet - a place for the leaflet distribution. There are huge swathes of target customers out there for whom a leaflet is the best form of communication. Not Twitter or Facebook or Google Buzz or even email, but the humble leaflet.

So what can a leaflet distribution do more effectively than other forms of advertising?

A considerable amount, but here are three things for starters:

Firstly, you can target accurately by postcode.

Developments in technology mean we can now distribute leaflets with an unprecedented level of accuracy.

Gone are the days when you had to clump target customers together into units of a few thousand, inevitably guaranteeing you a high degree of wastage and cost-ineffectiveness. Now, thanks to innovations like SMART-Drop, users can now run campaigns that target only a few dozen.

Secondly, you can target ALL demographic segments.

The internet is a wonderful thing, but it’s easy to forget sometimes that there are an awful lot of people in the UK who aren’t even online. In fact, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report in October discovered that over 10 million adults in the UK - 17% of the population - have never used the internet. The figure is likely to continue to decrease but I’m sure there will always remain a sizeable minority who, for whatever reason, are not interested in joining the online revolution.

Thirdly, a leaflet is more tangible.

Most newspapers provide all their content online now, but many people simply prefer to pay for the experience of being to sit back and hold it in their hands. There’s an element of this with the leaflet. If done properly, it’s a far more effective carrier for your message, providing something that people can take away with them, put in a safe place and return to if necessary.

Were the bloggers and journalists to understand the motivations behind Google’s decision, they would perhaps understand a bit more clearly why it makes perfect sense. I’d wager a bet that Google will be delighted with the response the campaign gets.