Billions of Dollars' Worth of Advertising That Hearst, Conde Nast, Time Inc. & All Magazines Seem to Ignore - Steve Blacker

In an era of more and more print ad dollars shifting to Digital due to the fact that consumers are spending more time reading content via Web sites tablets and mobile two huge targets of opportunity continue to be ignored More client dollars are spent below the line in nonmeasured expenditures versus traditional advertising The two biggest categories that most magazines totally ignore are coop and promotion which combined represents over 16 billion in total revenueOver 7 billion dollars a year is allocated for cop where national advertisers help support major retail customers local efforts Ironically almost half of the 7 billion is not spent due to the lack of interest by retailers in supporting their share of the nationally supported local programs The reason for the lack of support is that in many cases the local advertiser can buy local TV radio newspapers etc at a lower rate than the national advertiser Ironically a national advertiser can purchase advertising in magazines at a much lower rate than local or regional retailers By using a print ad the way a national advertiser might use TV a magazine can create a new coop opportunity for national advertisersI know this first hand as while at Time Magazine I sold coop programs to national advertisers Here39s how it worked A national advertiser would buy a page Their ad would have a 18 patch at the bottom that could be changed to feature a different retailers for as many markets as a magazine could break out For example back in 1971 Time magazine could break out 110 editionsmarkets Obviously there was a charge for each plate change per market Now the national advertiser could offer key customers a full page ad in a prestigious magazine for just a nominal cost ie the retailers39 share of the coop Even if the retailer attempted to buy a major market on his own ie New York Metro they would not only pay a higher rate but have production charges for the ad as well This worked so well for Time that I helped Sports Illustrated sell similar programs in the early 8039s For some reason though coop seemed to be an area that most ad sales people and Publishers seemed uncomfortable dealing with After I left Time Inc these programs seem to stopWhile some national ads today may feature key retail accounts this is done in most cases by the national advertiser to obtain the much lower retail rate Magazines need to call on those people at the client who control coop dollarsNational advertisers spend over 8 billion in promotion each year and these expenditures are projected to keep on increasing at a much higher rate than advertising Most all major clients have promotion agencies yet few if any magazine ad sales reps ever call on them Before any major ad campaigns are launched promotional themes are created for key selling seasons ie Christmas Back to School Mother39s Day etc Then the advertising is created to support these programs Every magazine has major and highly innovative promotional programs that in most cases become free added value programs Traditional ad agencies do not have promotion budgets Just as ad agencies have the AAAA promotion agencies have the Promotion Advertising Association of America They have yearly meetings which few if any magazines have ever attendedAgain I have had personal experience seeing how that by calling on a promotion agency one can get a major print schedule Back in the early 9039s I was Publisher of Inc magazine Inc had zero business from GM because our syndicated numbers were so bad I tried unsuccessfully to explain to GM and their agencies that people who work 70 or more hours a week building a fast growing small company would be highly unlikely to participate in a syndicated survey That led me to call on one of GM39s major promotion agencies that was responsible for dealer meetings I had a promotional idea for dealer meetings that involved showing dealers how to grow their business For example Inc would pull together successful CEOS of fast growing small companies along with our editors to share the top 10 secrets from each participant on how to grow your dealership There would be a video and leave behind plus an Inc special issue sponsored by GM GM bought the promotional program after just one meeting and when they asked for ideas on how to promote it to their 100000 dealers across the country it was easy to come up with a plan GM could buy a one year subscription for the dealers and then have a cover wrap promoting their upcoming dealer meetings along with messages from both Inc and GM in every issue GM liked the idea and now since they were using Inc as a promotional device decided to run a spread in every issue That grew to 6 or more pages when new models were introducedMaybe there is some solid business reason for magazines to ignore going after coop and promotion I don39t know and I have certainly tried over the years to get magazines interested I have come to believe it39s mainly that old habits are hard to break and that magazine companies have relationships with ad agencies and are more comfortable doing business as usualSteve39s most recent book You Can39t Fall Off The Floor The Insiders39 Guide to ReInventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King Cathie Black Chuck Townsend and 28 others Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt ampamp Blacker Solutions LLC His web site is blackerreinventionscom and email address is blackersolutionsaolcomRead all Steveamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media ReinventionsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

Billions of Dollars' Worth of Advertising That Hearst, Conde Nast, Time Inc. & All Magazines Seem to Ignore - Steve Blacker

Author

Publish date

Channel

Steve Blacker

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

More Videos:

Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

Billions of Dollars' Worth of Advertising That Hearst, Conde Nast, Time Inc. & All Magazines Seem to Ignore - Steve Blacker

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Steve Blacker

Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

The payment was successful

Cookies