Magazine Marketing Coalition: Creating a MovementWorld Magazine Congress of the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP)May 24, 2005New York, NY
We are a time of great challenges in our business. And along with those challenges comes real opportunities. America is undergoing a rapid, radical transformation. The challenges that are facing all media today present real opportunities for magazines which, among all traditional media, are uniquely positioned to capture significant benefit.
Everyone agrees that consumer choice and control is the key issue that advertising has to face. The advertising business is admitting that they have to react to a very changed consumer, and they know they have to provide the type of advertising messages that adapt to this new consumer behavior. American consumers face an unprecedented explosion of media choice.
In the face of this abundance, they are devoting more time to media consumption than ever in history: an average of nearly 10.5 hours a day, or roughly 65% of their waking time. That rate is steadily increasing.
On-demand technologies have put consumers in control by empowering them to choose the information and entertainment they want to receive, as well as when, where, how, and from what sources they receive it. They are more able and interested in avoiding uninvited commercial interruption.
Americans are subjected to an estimated average of 3,000 commercial messages daily. That’s why this has been called “The Age of Interruption.”
Commercial avoidance has become an art. In homes with DVR’s, viewers are zapping past 90% of part, some, or all television commercials. And, the number homes equipped with DVR’s is expected to grow over 300% over the next few years. By 2009, the penetration of DVR’s will be 44% or nearly 50 million of all TV households.
Today, consumers want ads “by invitation only”. Network TV is clearly the most vulnerable
Magazines are the original on-demand medium, available on consumers terms—whenever and wherever they choose to indulge. While other media interrupt. Magazines engage while other media interrupt. As many buyers say, its all about consumer choice and control.
Studies show that the highest percentage of consumers find advertising in magazines to be acceptable and trustworthy than advertising on network or cable TV or online. And the lowest numbers are online.
Multiple studies demonstrate return on investment is strengthened when the percent of magazines in the media mix is increased because magazines drive sales volume efficiently.
Two years ago, through the Magazine Publishers of America—or MPA—our industry invested in research from Northwestern University that helped us better understand how readers consume magazine content and advertising. This study, like the others I’ve mentioned, demonstrated how powerfully magazines—and magazine advertising—connect with readers.
So consumers may zap, mute, tune out, or fast-forward through TV commercials. They may block spam or pop-up ads online. They may download music to avoid commercials.
But they clearly consider advertising to be an integral and valuable part of their magazine reading, not just another annoying interruption.
TV without commercials is improved, magazines without ads are diminished. You hear about commercial free TV and radio, but no one wants a magazine without advertising.
Multitasking is another key issue for advertisers. In this atmosphere of media overload, most people. particularly the younger generations consume several forms of media at one time.
Studies show that magazines are the least multitasked media. If advertisers want engagement and intimacy, clearly the one-on-one relationship with magazines matters.
When your eyes, minds and hands are occupied, there is not too much room for anything else.
Our challenge now, as an industry, is to educate advertisers about this advantage and to effectively market our medium.
That means overcoming a long tradition of focusing on our individual titles, rather than on the medium of magazines.
The magazine industry has known that the consumer is in control when it comes to magazines. The consumer has always had choice.
Whether to buy or not to buy, whether to open it up or not. Whether to subscribe or not subscribe. Our business is based on consumer choice.
In the U.S., the stakes are high. As many of you know, every 1% share gain in U.S. advertising expenditures is worth more than $1 billion in advertising revenue to our industry.
Last year, we formed the Magazine Marketing Coalition with the MPA to evaluate opportunities and strategies for magazines to market the medium and to capture a larger total share of advertising dollars in this highly competitive media environment.
In addition to major publishing companies, the coalition includes our important partners from printing, film, paper, and other related businesses. Magazine partner suppliers are more invested – when we do well, they do well – and vice versa – they share our hard times.
Our goals are clear: to gain a larger share of advertisers’ revenue for magazines and to catapult consumer magazines to a new place where they are universally recognized for their value and contribution to advertising plans. Our target audiences are advertising clients, agencies, and people in our own industry.
Last spring, the coalition hired the marketing strategy firm HotSpring to assess the media environment, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various players in it, and the opportunities for our industry. HotSpring helped us develop a positioning platform, strategies, and program elements for what has become a comprehensive three-year effort—the first of its kind in the U.S. magazine industry. We have committed more than the equivalent of $40 million over a 3 year period to implementation.
The message is that magazines have a timeless ability to connect with readers and, in this day - when the consumer is more in control than ever of how he or she consumes a commercial message -
No other medium engages consumers in quite the same way – both in the content and the advertising. The elements include
- Create unexpected advertising- Develop exciting events- Use PR to shape perceptions- Create sales programs
The coalition engaged Fallon NY—one of the country’s hottest agencies—to create an advertising campaign that communicates the core messages with an element of fun and surprise.
These ads are designed to grab advertisers’ attention by showing a world in the future in which magazines continue to demonstrate their ability to connect with readers.
These ads began running in top newspapers and trade magazines in late February. They are accompanied by the copy: “No matter how things change, or how complicated the world becomes, people will still set aside a moment each day for something real. Read on.” To add an element of humor and surprise, leading weekly and monthly magazines are creating
Fantasy covers set in the future for the copies distributed to advertisers. Here two leading U.S. titles – Newsweek and Cosmopolitan have fun with the concept. More than 50 magazines have signed up for this cover campaign so far.
The campaign urges everyone in our industry to sing from the same songbook by incorporating the industry’s messages into their sales calls and day-to-day communications with the advertising community. Tools available through the Web site—like the checklist of messages you see on the screen, as well as case studies—help simplify the process.
As many of you know, the U.S TV upfront sales efforts are currently under way in the U.S. We decided to have a little fun with the campaign. A recent fantasy cover on Brandweek, one of our leading trade publications in the U.S., took a futuristic look at a world with no TV upfronts.
The cover read “Remembering the Upfronts - 20 years After Their Demise, Ad Execs Chuckle At Former Follies.”
Last week, outside Radio City Music Hall, MPA sent more than 70 men and women to stand among hundreds of media buyers as they entered the NBC upfront presentation.
Their T-shirts read “Magazines Offer ER – Engaged Reach – a play on words with one of NBC’s leading programs ER.
The MPA also sent representatives to Lincoln Center when ABC Network presented their top programs including DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and LOST. Their T-Shirts read “We’re DESPERATE for our magazines” and “We’d be lost without our magazines.” The promotion received terrific attention from the media community and the press.
I was recently interviewed for an article about the coalition’s efforts, and the reporter asked me, “Why now?” The answer is there has never been a better opportunity because of the trends I spoke of earlier.
As the media landscape evolves, advertisers and agencies are rethinking their strategies, and their conclusions can lead to magazines but we have to clearly demonstrate our strengths.
Consumers may be king, but as I said before, so is content. Our magazines are strong brands beloved by consumers because our content is trusted, credible and engaging. New platforms and technologies just enable us to leverage that.
When it comes to engagement, we already know what other media are trying to learn, and we already do what they are trying to create. In magazines, we are able, on a daily basis, to deal with the world in which the consumer has control and choice - that’s what we’ve always been doing.
Thank you.
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