Ad Sales Blog

Why not an audit for digital only magazines in the US?

 My post on how the Europeans already have an audit for digital only magazines created a lot of interest. In the US, ad sales for digital only magazines have been slow. But in Europe, having the credibility of an independently verified circulation helps a lot. 

As follow up, I am posting a few of those audits. Again, the core metric on these audits for digital only magazines is issues delivered and opened.  

In writing my original post, my conversations with the North American ABC people were extremely amicable. They said, repeatedly, that if US publishers requested an identical, or similar, audit they would be very happy to assist.

If there is a publisher who wants to lead the charge, here is what you will need:

Link to the ABCe website 

Download Monkey Magazine ABCe

Download IMotor Magazine ABCe

Download IGIZMO Magazine ABCe

My last post on audits for digital only magazines

Go get 'em!

How print ads help generate web leads

Let’s talk about yellow page advertising. Here’s a form of advertising designed to elicit a response. Telmetrics, an advertising call tracking company released data earlier this month demonstrating the power of a unique URL as part of a print ad.

Telmetrics measured how many solid sales leads came from yellow page ads and compared how many came from a reader picking up the phone, versus reading a URL on the ad and responding online. 

Company president Bill Dinan made the assumption that most survey respondents would say they picked up the phone to engage the advertiser. He was correct, but surprised at how close it was when only 56% of leads came in via phone calls, and 44% came through a direct response of the URL printed on the ad. The study also discovered that unique URLs like  CallFlorists2.com were more often visited than client specific domains with URL extensions like Publisher.com/florists. If you want your print ad to generate a response keep the URL in the ad and keep it unique and simple.

Read the Telmetrics report

Age of magazine readers rise, but slightly

  Between 2001 and 2009 the median age of readers of consumer magazines rose by only 3%. This was reported last week by Media Post which crunched numbers from over 90 leading  consumer publications.  

How important is this?

I think it is a great cliche buster. I have worked with many publishers who have measured the age of their online readers and compared them to the age of their print readers. Most expected a big swing for the younger readers to online. Most were surprised. About 2/3 reported no difference in age, a third showed a slightly younger audience for online.

The cliche aged print reader and the cliche online teen reader are both just that, cliches. When measurements are applied, there is a slight shift, but not a big one. Young and older readers both like magazines and online media. 

On a call you can use this study to show how print is not such an old person's media after all.

Read the original study on Media Daily News

If a digital magazine is not opened in a forest does anyone read it?

A digital magazine story now traveling the Web is on a subject some publishers dread and media buyers have suspicion; digital magazine open rates. Napier News asked a number of European digital magazines what their open rates were. The admittedly informal query yielded the following:

Four titles had open rates of 11-12%
One title had an open rate of 16%
One title had an open rate of 19%

A media buyer hearing these numbers might conclude that digital editions are useless for advertising.

But there's a huge difference between digital magazines created as replicas of print magazines for the convenience of readers to archive and search their print publications, versus "designed for digital" publications created to fight for audiences in competitive online environments.

"Design for digital" publications have much higher open rates, so much so, that many are making their case with advertisers without discussing open rates.    

In Europe, the recent ABCe audit for digital only publications makes its core metric copies delivered and opened. By design, this audit does not mention how many copies/invites are originally sent out to achieve this. In other words, if an ABCe audit for digital only magazines confirms a 100,000 monthly circulation, this indicates 100,000 copies sent and opened by readers that month. Oddly, this audit will not share how many copies/invites were originally sent out to achieve that 100,000 number.  

If advertisers are not told how many issues are originally sent out they cannot calculate an open rate. I think this is terrific, because it shifts the question most asked on a sales call from, "What is your open rate?" to "What can we achieve for this advertiser with these delivered and opened copies of this digital magazine?"

I have not heard of an audit for digital only magazines in North America that verify open rates. Please post a reply if you know of one.

If none exist, I would encourage North American publishers to press their audit organizations to create an appropriate audit for digital only editions.

Read the whole Napier News article on digital magazine open rates

Visit the ABCe website

Is the CMO of your advertiser on Twitter?

  One great way to get on the "inside" of an account is to follow key marketing decision-makers on Twitter. Anyone can "follow" anyone with a Twitter account, and by "following" a marketing executive you will receive a steady stream of anecdotal information that can better help you understand and ultimately sell the account.

The question is who in your client's marketing department is on Twitter? I've noticed that most ad managers and people focused on internal functions are often not. Even though Twitter is all the rage most people who start on it do not continue. A recent survey by Nielsen found that less than 60% of Twitter beginners continue after a month. In business, the people who tend to keep Tweeting are ones who find a business benefit. For internal people, like media buyers, once the novelty wears of it can be hard to justify the time, effort, and discipline required to keep up a steady flow of Tweets.

But an insightful Tweeting Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)can attract positive attention for an organization. Since most will assume they are involved in company policy, when their posts generate a positive reaction, it reflects on the company. That is a business benefit.

On a large account you may never meet or call on the CMO, but by "following " them on Twitter you can gain insight into the mind, values, and where abouts of the person setting the tone and direction for an organizations marketing. 

Let's get started. Check this list of CMOs who are on Twitter maintained by by Systemic Marketing to see if you already know a CMO on Twitter. Hey, that's  Zinio's CMO Jeanniey Mullen at #33 on the list. See? I already know a CMO on Twitter. I'll bet you do too!    

Read about the Nielsen report about Twitter newcomers dropping off after a month

See the Systemic Marketing list of CMOs now on Twitter

Print sales tip from a Nielsen analyst: let's get physical

Last Friday, Nielsen Analyst Alex Burmaster shared insight, hope, and a sales tip for print media reps. Burmaster took aim at the conventional wisdom that says that print, especially newspapers, will inevitably die. "Not so," says Burmaster and uses Nielsen Research findings from a parallel industry to make his point: 

"Whilst digital has major advantages over print in terms of immediacy and depth of content, there are some things that it simply can’t replace in the minds or lives of consumers. We saw a similar story a couple of years ago when it came to the effect of the digital industry on music sales. The predictable “death of the CD” headlines followed and whilst there is little debate that traditional CD sales have been hit hard, the format is by no means extinct.

Nielsen ran a large survey looking at why consumers still planned to buy CDs and reasons included: liking to physically own something (rather than an “abstract” mp3 file), having a physical collection that included the artwork, and being easier to port the music to other areas. For the majority, is there anything as simple as just grabbing a CD from the living room and taking it with you into the car? The industry has always had a tendency to over-estimate people’s technological familiarity and competency.

Of course, CDs are a different media from newspapers, but the themes of physicality, practicality, familiarity, and convenience for the masses are consistent themes. Digital can’t replace the traditional walk to get the morning papers, reading the Sunday papers in bed, or an impulse purchase of a newspaper for a train journey - not everyone has the desire or the access to a portable electronic device at every moment of the day.

Whether it’s habit, touch and feel, familiarity, techno-illiteracy or convenience, a significant chunk of the population will still require a physical version to hold in their hands."

While print media will see some downsizing, ultimately the physicality of print media may be what saves it.

Read all of Burmaster's post