Magazine Industry Launches Offensive To Lure Advertisers
The Periodical Publishers Association is this week launching its biggest ever marketing campaign in an attempt to increase the consumer magazine industry’s share of the UK advertising market.
Publishers such as IPC Media, Emap and National Magazine Company have invested around £5 million in the initiative, which is designed to persuade existing television advertisers to switch some of their budget to magazines.
The strategy aims to increase the industry’s existing 6.8% share of UK adspend by a further 1% by providing clients and their agencies with the research they need to make the best use of the medium.
The PPA has trained a fifty-strong team of senior sales people from participating consumer publishers to present the case for magazines to brand managers. These so-called ‘magazine advocates’ will focus on proving how the last 25% of client television spend could work more effectively in magazines.
It is understood that the strategy is part of a wider revamp of marketing at the PPA, which sees the board committee for consumer and marketing relaunched under the PPA Marketing umbrella with a more external focus.
The initiative also includes an ongoing training scheme for the magazine industry’s sales teams and the launch of an online advertising resource centre providing agencies with direct access to the latest research into the medium.
PPA Marketing Board chair and IPC Advertising managing director, Georgina Crace, said: “Please don’t think we’re about to unveil another generic agency or marketing bureau – we’re not. We’re focusing instead on our strongest assets, our sales people. They’re the real lobbyists for consumer magazines. They’re the ones on the phone everyday, selling the power of the medium.”
Duncan Edwards, managing director of The National Magazine Company, added: “The PPA Marketing initiative is a superb example of how our industry can, and should, work together. All the evidence suggests that magazines currently take less share than rational analysis would suggest that they should.”
The latest figures from the Advertising Association show that consumer magazines saw expenditure remain virtually static during the three months to September with a slight 0.3% year on year decline to £190 million (see Gains For Radio And Outdoor Fail To Boost UK Adspend).
PPA: 020 7404 4166 www.ppa.co.uk
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