Passion and Power

8/8/2019 Passion and Power.

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/passion-and-power 1/26

USING MAGAZINES TO EMBED BRAND MESSAGES WITH CONSUMERSUSING MAGAZINES TO EMBED BRAND MESSAGES WITH CONSUMERS

A FRESH APPROACH TO PLANNING A FRESH APPROACH TO PLANNING

VOLUME 1



Contents

Briefly…

Taking a fresh look at planningIt’s getting tougher to get marketing messages acrossFinding a new way…and facing new challenges

Delivering power...with magazinesPlanning scale in magazinesIntegration: however its wanted

Fuelling passion...with magazinesPsychographic targeting : winning trustMaking brands relevant : messages which fit

Resistors and conductorsEnsuring a good reception…and engaging – withmagazines

2

4

8

16

21

This booklet forms part of PPA’s Revolution initiative – to give new help to planners faced with thechallenges of getting brand messages across effectively in an era of growing advertising dilution



Briefly…

It’s time to take a fresh look at planning

It’s getting tougher to get marketing messages across

Today’s media and marketing bombardment increasingly drives people to sideline advertising– and weakens its firepower

A revolutionary approach is needed

No longer is it enough to just grab someone’s attention. Advertising must seek to engageconsumers with the brand – not just place messages in front of them.

New challenges need to be addressed

To get across to consumer targets and engage with them, planners need to devisecampaigns which deliver brand messages with the necessary POWER and PASSION

Advertising messages need to be assured of a good reception

Some media are better than others at engagement and delivering campaigns with therequisite power and passion – because some media features help the advertising engage thetarget market, while others hinder this sort of communication

Magazines are especially suited to this task

They are superb message ‘conductors’

2 PPA MARKETING PASSION AND POWER A FRESH APPROACH TO PLANNING



…Briefly

Magazines can deliver brand messages withPOWER

They can deliver a scale or a niche audience which fully expects the advertising content to be an

enhancement to their media experience – not a detriment to it

Their ability to cross media boundaries means they can offer advertisers multi-platform contact points underthe auspices of a single brand relationship with consumers

Magazines can convey brand messages with the kind ofPASSION to successfully engage people

Their ability to target consumers on a psychographic basis means advertising messages are perceivedas relevant, are valued and, moreover, are trusted

Magazines deliver advertisers the opportunity to embed their brands within the values oftheir readers by delivering an audience with shared values, attitudes and interests

Magazine brands’ relationship with consumers, their creative flexibility and cross-platformdelivery, their ability to target consumers’ attitudes and values, the relevance of their content,

the attention paid to advertising within the medium and their ability to reach large targetmarkets mark magazines out as the 21st century medium of engagement



Taking a fresh look at planning

It’s getting tougher to get marketing messages across

Today’s media and marketing bombardment increasingly drives people to sideline advertising – and weakensits firepower

Just too much

Compared with 30 years ago we live in a world of unlimited choice. In 1977 the number of retailers, products andbrands targeting consumers was tiny in comparison with today’s marketplace. In 2007, buying a cup of coffee froman informed position could take you a lifetime. For example, there are now 3,427 coffee outlets each offering UKconsumers an enormous choice of coffee. If you multiply the number of coffee types (like latte or espresso) by thetoppings, the milk, the sugar, the cup sizes, the strength and the syrups available then for each type of coffee beanconsumers are faced with more than 6,000 choices. If a consumer tried a different one each day it would take them

over 16 and a half years to try them all. Then of course, there’s the Arabica bean to move on to.

Media bombardment

So it is with media - for we also live in a time of unparalleled media proliferation. The number of media we haveaccess to has increased by over 20 times. Rather than one commercial TV station, we now have over 250 in the UK:Along with17,000 radio stations available on the Internet, 3,500 consumer magazines, 1200 regional newspapers,120,759 ad spaces on the London Underground, 85,670 ad spaces on buses across the UK, 22,000 ad spaces intelephone kiosks,124,980 fuel pump nozzles, and 9,547 illuminated shop-fronts.

Then there's the world of new media, on-line advertising (and websites themselves), viral emails and text messaging.It seems there is nothing that can't be used as an advertising medium nowadays.





http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/passion-and-power 7/266 PPA MARKETING PASSION AND POWER A FRESH APPROACH TO PLANNING


Finding a new way…

No longer is it enough to just grab someone’s attention. Advertising must seek to engage the

consumer with the brand – not just place messages in front of them.

Marketers are having to re-think their approach

The key challenge facing today’s media planners is to ensure that advertising is given the best possible chance to engagethe consumer it is aimed at.

But the proliferation of media and increase in consumer control over exposure to advertising represent significant barriersto this objective.

Now, more than ever, it is essential that media planners and creative teams work together to improve the likelihood ofengagement. In combination these two disciplines need to ensure that the message is both relevant to the consumer andwelcomed by them. Those that fail to do this run the increasing risk that the consumer will find ways of avoiding orignoring their attempts to communicate.

In short, marketers need to revolutionise the way that they think about reaching the consumer.

As the Chartered Institute of Marketing put it:

“We need to enter the age of consent across the media spectrum. This will involve a shift from amodel of intrusion to one of communicating and building relationships through collaboration...”




…and facing new challenges

But the difficulties with this new approach are not insignificant. Advertisers face four problem areas, which, in turn,resolve themselves into two key challenges:

Delivering a campaign with the necessary POWER

Here there are two particular issues:

1. Balancing scale and relevanceFor any advertiser with even the vaguest aspirations of volume the quality of the communication will have to bebalanced with the scale of audience exposed to it. There appear to be three basic choices;

1. Single messages to large audiences (scale but lacking relevance)2. Single messages to a niche audience (relevant but lacking scale)3. Multiple messages to multiple audiences (scale and relevance)

2. Multi-platform IntegrationCreating the ‘brand collateral’ required to expose consumers to the brand is a key challenge. Increasing consumercontrol over exposure to advertising means that campaigns will have to appear in multiple environments tocommunicate successfully. There is an almost unlimited range of touch-points with consumers today requiring manydifferent formats for content. The key to effective communication is a blend of the right message(s), in the rightformat(s), allowing the right consumers to be communicated with at the right time (for them). The days of the 30” TVspot as the default are over. A blend of visual, audio, audio/visual, interactive, experiential, user generated, andsocial networking content could be required for a successful campaign. As a consequence, communication is muchcloser to content creation than it used to be.

Conveying the message with the kind of PASSION to successfully engage the target

Again, two specific challenges exist:

3. Meaningful consumer segmentationThe target groups for this type of campaign are likely to be psychographic in nature rather than socio-demographic. It mattersmore what values, attitudes and interests a consumer has (because communication should reflect similar values and attitudes inorder to engage the consumer) than how much they earn, or what age they are. The ability of media to target this way variesenormously with many media unable to segment their audience into meaningful psychographic segments.

4. Fitting the brand to the communityIt is crucial to identify the genuine consumer needs which the brand fulfils and the consumers that possess these needs.There is likely to be a range of potential requirements and audiences for each brand. While the fundamentalpersonality of the brand must remain consistent, it is essential that the facet(s) of the brand most relevant to eachaudience are identified. The brand must be seen to fit the community targeted.

Lets examine in more detail how magazines can – and do – overcome these key challenges...



Delivering power ...with magazines

Planning scale in magazines

Magazines can deliver a scale or a niche audience – and, moreover, an audience which fully

expects the advertising content to be an enhancement to their media experience – not adetriment to it.

The combination of magazines’ psychographic segmentation, active media consumption and scale provides advertiserswith an unparalleled opportunity to engage with mass audiences. Planned the correct way (see PPA Planning Uncovered2005) it is a medium capable of delivering mass market coverage or niche market reach -– and an audience ready to beengaged by the advertising message

Watch your weight

Magazines are often cast as a medium that struggles to deliver measurable sales effects in the short term, despite awealth of evidence to the contrary: it is often how we have planned the campaign that creates the difficulty in measuringthe strong consumer responses that research suggests result from magazine advertising.

30

ABC1 25-44 Women – 4 week 30 rating campaign

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

26 insertions54% cover@ 3.0 ots164 ratings

93% of coverdelivered within6 weeks

87% of ratingsdelivered within6 weeks

Weekly delivery23% @ 1.3 ots

Monthly delivery48% @ 2.6 ots

wk1 wk2 wk3 wk4 wk5 wk6 wk7 wk8

55

45

35

25

15

5

-5

Ratings Coverage

31 33 32

106 4 3

30 31 33 33 32 33 30 30 33 32 33 32

19

107 5 4 3 3 2


100

90

80

70

60

5040

30

20

10

0





12 wk delivery77% @ 5.0 ots

w k 1

w k 2

w k 3

w k 4

w k 5

w k 6

w k 7

w k 8

w k 9

w k 1 0

w k 1 1

w k 1 2

w k 1 3

w k 1 4

w k 1 5

w k 1 6

w k 1 7

w k 1 8

w k 1 9

w k 2 0

100

90

80

70

60

5040

30

20

10

0

Ratings Coverage

23

33

41

48 49 50 51 51

41

55

67

77 78






Get your timing right

In television, newspaper and radio planning we have been able for some time to identify and locate with acceptableprecision, when and where exposure to advertising takes place. Timing of exposure, expressed as weekly or monthlyreach, dominates media thinking – but this is rarely applied to magazines.

Until very recently, we have been unable to locate the timing of exposures in magazines. As a consequence, the mediumhas been planned title by title – or spot by spot, if you prefer. Media plans are chock-a-block with magazine titleinsertions filling the planning schedule with activity – but these schedules do little to reflect the actual delivery of messagesor the intensity with which they are delivered.

But with the launch of NRS Readership Accumulation data we now have a much more accurate method of planning

magazines. With this data we can now plan magazines in much the same way that we plan every other medium. Wecan work out the weekly rating delivery and the weekly coverage of target audiences. We can plan magazines to impacton consumer purchasing in just the same way that other media is planned.

Take TV, for example. A pretty ordinary TV schedule would deliver around 100 ratings each week. As a consequence, asignificant proportion (50% or more) of the target market is exposed to advertising in order to affect the purchasedecisions they make that week. In every week, the delivery will be maintained at around this level – although thecampaign may be front-weighted to an extent.

Measure up

What does today’s magazine schedule look like in comparison?

We asked billets to analyse 100 recent magazine campaigns to establish their average weekly weight. Billets reportedthat magazine weight appeared to be universally low, with an average of 8 ratings used each week across these 100campaigns. That’s a guarantee that at least 92% of the market being targeted will not see the advertising each week!

Here’s an example. Plan A delivers 186 ratings in what looks like a pretty sensible schedule.

How should we plan?

Page 4clr

Womens weekliesOK! MagazineNowHeat

Women’s MonthliesSheRedNew WomanMarie Claire

Top Sante

Target Audience Young up-scale women49% @ 3.8 OTS

March April May June July AugustIns

444

2232

2

X,X X X

X X,X X

X,X X X

June

June

June

June July

July

July

August

August

August

August

But here’s what it really looks like...

25

20

15

10

5

0

Weeks1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

GRP’s

How should we plan?

Plan A as readers read – several “black holes”

Source: NRS





No single week has more than 20 ratings. The strike rate is all over the place. Many weeks have less than 10 ratingsbeing delivered.

This is unlikely to have a measurable effect on a marketplace that can be attributed to magazines. In discussions withvarious ‘measurement’ companies it would appear a reasonable rule of thumb is that around 25-30% coverage of atarget market is required before the effect is likely to be measurable.

Planning…a new approach

So, how should magazine weight be planned?

In discussing a change to planning methodology, it is our intention to spark a debate – but not to cast ourselves as media

planners, as we obviously have a vested interest in this discussion. But we feel that it is important for us to consider currenplanning practice and point out how new information and planning tools could be used for a more effective return oninvestment. A good approach might be to:

Set incremental weekly reach targets.Week 1 might be a 30% target, by week 4 this should have delivered at least 50% reach and by week 12 this shouldbe up to 70%.

Establish a candidate schedule.

Using NRS, select those magazines (both weekly and monthly) that deliver the target audience. You might use a thresholdfor selection, such as a target audience profile of 60% minimum.

Establish the weekly reach available.Using ‘Timeplan’ or equivalent, input your title selection with the maximum number of insertions within the campaignperiod. This establishes the maximum reach available.



30 31 33 33 32 33 30 30 33 32 33 32

19

107 5 4 3 3 2


100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0





12 wk delivery77% @ 5.0 ots

w k 1

w k 2

w k 3

w k 4

w k 5

w k 6

w k 7

w k 8

w k 9

w k 1 0

w k 1 1

w k 1 2

w k 1 3

w k 1 4

w k 1 5

w k 1 6

w k 1 7

w k 1 8

w k 1 9

w k 2 0

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Ratings Coverage

41

55

67

77 78

30


100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0




Weekly delivery

23% @ 1.3 otsMonthly delivery48% @ 2.6 ots

wk1 wk2 wk3 wk4 wk5 wk6 wk7 wk8

55

45

35

25

15

5

-5

Ratings Coverage

31 33 32

106 4 3

23

33

41

48 49 50 51 51


Optimise the schedule.Taking into account weekly reach targets, environment and cost issues, reduce the number of magazines/insertions on theschedule until objectives are met.





Paying attention

In addition to this scale of delivery comes the ability to segment audiences into groups that have similar attitudes, interestsand values. The process of title selection (reflecting the consumer’s mood or needs) and subsequent payment means thatthe consumer expects the magazine consumption will deliver something of value to them. ‘Pay as you go’ media likemagazines and newspapers enjoy higher attention levels than more default media consumption. As a result, they aremuch more likely to be the sole focus of consumer attention.

Keeping control

Furthermore, magazines offer consumers a consumption experience over which they have full control. This leads to a farmore positive view of the contribution advertising makes to the media experience – something that augments the processof engaging audiences with advertising.

Consumer control of the media consumption has a profound impact on consumer attitudes and expectations of theadvertising within the medium in question. In media where the consumer struggles to remain in control, advertising is moreoften than not seen as an interruption – something that detracts from the experience. In media where the consumer cancontrol the speed of consumption, and so the amount of advertising exposure, advertising is generally seen more as anintegral part of the media consumption rather than an interruption to it.

“In a media environment increasingly characterised by interruption, magazines remain an oasisof engagement”. (Starcom US 2005)

As a consequence of this control, advertising in magazines is consumed by readers at a pace that they deem appropriateto the communication. If the message is considered relevant and interesting the consumer is able to spend as long as theylike with the advertising. This has an obvious impact on the ability of magazines to generate advertising awareness (betterthan TV on first exposure) and positively affect brand imagery, familiarity and purchase intent.

Erwin Ephron summed it up nicely;

“Readers have a more favourable reaction to print ads because print ads do not intrude or attemptto control…Even though people may avoid commercials, they don’t dislike advertising. They object tointrusive, controlling advertising.”

Brand Familiarity

Magazines

TV

Online

85%57%

64%

Brand Imagery

Magazines

TV

Online

75%61%

55%

Purchase Intent

Magazines

TV

Online

72%53%

33%

Source: Marketing Evolution 2006Results represent the percent of the 19 studies in which each medium produced a positive point change for each stage of the purchase cycle.




Integration : however its wanted

There is an almost unlimited range of touch-points with consumers today requiring many different formats for content. Thekey to effective communication is a blend of the right message(s), in the right format(s), allowing the right consumers to becommunicated with at the right time (for them).

This is likely to require blends of visual, audio, audio/visual, interactive, experiential, user- generated and socialnetworking content rather than a reliance on a single channel for communication.

Any way, any time, anywhere

One of the defining aspects of magazines is their ability to cross media boundaries in a way other media struggle to mimic.

Many magazines have become recognised brands in their own right, enjoying a relationship and

meaning that goes beyond the paper product delivered on a weekly or monthly basis. This allows magazines to step intoterritories beyond print without stretching the credulity of consumers.

As a consequence, magazines can now offer advertisers multi-platform contact points under the auspices of a singlebrand relationship with consumers.

Whether it’s awareness generationvia display advertising…

...the implied endorsementof the magazine brand via advertorials

...or the more detailed endorsement anddepth of content available from bespoke publications...

...magazines are extremely flexible in the content that they can carry for advertisers.




The physical nature of the medium also allowsmagazines to deliver couponsto consumers for in store redemption...

...samples within the magazinefor consumers to trial new products...

...generate consumer feedback and dialogue...

...and reward the consumer in-storewith a product of high perceived value

from a brand that they both recognise and value.

The nature of magazine brands also allow them to endorse advertisers’brands to an audience much wider than the magazine’s readership.

Innovative ways of carrying the messageto the consumer are achievablewith good briefing...

...as is retail activity which enhances the

experience of shopping, as well as adding to thecredibility of advertisers’ brands.




Furthermore, publishers have already extended the influence of magazine brands beyond theprint product and into RSS feeds, Mobile services, Internet, Web TV, Digital TV, Digital Radio,

V.O.D., PSP, and consumer events.

Mobile Internet

RSS FeedsMagazine

PSP

Interactive

Web TV



Fuelling passion ...with magazines

Psychographic targeting : winning trust

If communication is going to engage consumers, the target groups for this type of campaign arelikely to be psychographic in nature rather than socio-demographic. It matters more what

values, attitudes and interests a consumer has because communication should reflect similar values and attitudes to engage the consumer.

“Engagement is all about making it relevant to the consumer.” James Speros, Chief Marketing Officer, Ernst & Young

Keeping in step

The ability of media to target consumers on a psychographic basis is key: values and interests rather than the emotionally‘blind’ targeting offered by socio-demographic segmentation.

Magazines are perfectly placed for this. People read particular magazines because of the life-stages and events whichcurrently involve them: from teenager to golfer, from having a baby to coping with retirement. A person’s choice ofmagazine moves in step with his or her personal, social and psychological development. Magazine choice is, of course,likely to be modified as people pass through the life-stages of childhood, adolescence, early working years, early yearsof marriage or living together, the years of young children, older children, the empty-nest years after the children have lefthome, and finally the years of old age. Within a much narrower time-span there are other changes that affect people’s

repertoire of magazines, even if only temporarily, such as moving house, redecorating, or thinking of changing the car.The plethora of consumer titles not only declares a very healthy market but is also a visible sign of this consumersegmentation. Each subject area tends to be broken down by magazines focusing on specific areas, striking anincreasingly personal chord with those readers who are especially interested in a given sector.

Creating belief

With magazines, the editorial/reader relationship creates a bond of trust, belief, expectation and empathy. This trust inthe editorial content of magazines rubs off on consumer attitudes to advertising within their chosen title. Not only is

advertising expected to be more relevant in magazines, it is also more likely to be trusted and believed by the consumer.And because the medium offers psychographically segmented audiences, advertisers can make their messages morerelevant to the consumer in a medium where advertising is more trusted.

Relevance is not just the fit between advertising message and audience or advertising and media environment – it is alsothe fit between the audience and the advertiser’s brand.

Reaching who matters

Magazines have a distinct advantage over many other media when it comes to the core audience delivered. The pricecharged for access to the medium provides magazines with a strong bias towards more affluent audiences, while thesubject matter covered by many magazines ensures strong penetration amongst younger consumer groups. If you compareTV and Magazines directly the relative strength of magazines becomes more apparent




Psychographic targeting: winning trust

In 2005 the best converting ABC1 Women spot on ITV’s terrestrial broadcast was ‘49 Up’ on 15th September:

29.4% of the delivered audience was within the target market – 70.6% was not. It should be stressed that this representsthe best converting terrestrial airtime – the complete schedule is likely to convert at around 27%. In other words, 73% ofthe audience reached (and paid for) are outside of the target market.

This difficulty in reaching an affluent market is at odds to the magazine experience. Magazines which are unlikely to strikeplanners as particularly good for affluent audiences are still better than the best TV has to offer – by some margin. Take aBreak offers advertisers 3.5 million consumers with an ABC1 profile (31.6%) that is 7.5% superior to the best afforded byITV. Chat magazine is probably closest to the best ITV conversion standing at 29.2% ABC1 women profile.

When it comes to those magazines that specifically target affluent groups the figures are incomparable. Glamour offers aABC1 women readership where 67% of the audience fit the target market, Elle is 66%, Marie Claire 65%. All of themare more than 220% better at reaching this affluent audience, in large numbers, than ITV.

These figures become most relevant when consumer purchasing power is taken into account. The heaviest spenders in theUK grocery sector account for almost 60% of the sterling value in the market. These consumers are likely to see the leastadvertising in a strategy dominated by broadcast media.

ITV – Best converting programme to ABC1 women

49 Up (Thu 15 Sep 05)

Adult Universe (000s)

46,563

Target Universe

11,973

Universe Profile

25.7%

Adult Ratings

11.4

Target Ratings

15.1

Adult Viewers (000s)

5,308

Target Viewers (000s)

1,808

Spot Profile

29.4%

All Grocery Shoppers

Heavy spenders

Medium spenders

Light spenders

% Pop

35

26

39

% £

58

24

18

ITV

77

105

121

Mags

111

99

79

TGI: Heavy users of medium vs HW grocery shoppers

Source: BARB




Recently, research in the US analysed the relevance of TV campaigns, comparing these with magazine campaigns. Theaudience delivery from 30 actual campaigns across 6 product categories in both media were examined and the profileof product users reached assessed.

In every case the audience delivered by the magazine campaign was more relevant to the advertiser’s brand than theaudience delivered by the broadcast medium.

Magazines’ ability to reach a scale audience, segmented by attitudes and interests is significantly better than other media.The content of the medium is relevant to the consumer, the advertising is expected to be equally relevant and isconsequently welcomed, and the audience delivered is likely to be highly relevant to the advertiser’s business given the

purchasing power of the magazine audience.

Brand*

SUV

Coffee

Tampons

Financial

Men’s Razor

MP3 Player

118

101

134

140

114

133

138

123

186

165

142

198

+17

+23

+39

+18

+24

+49

Source: MRI and TNS/Media Intelligence

TV Product UserIndex

Magazine ProductUser Index

PercentDiffere nce




Making brands relevant : messages which fit

The segmentation of audiences into groups of similar attitude and interest provides advertisers with an opportunity to ensure brands are presented to markets in a way that reflects theirrelevance to the consumer – and stimulates word of mouth within the target communities

Embedding brands with readers’ values

As we have seen, readers approach magazines in a frame of mind geared to absorbing that particular magazine’s personalityand opinion. They expect relevance and consonance between the character of the advertising and the magazine.

The challenge for advertisers is to fit their brand to the values, attitudes and interests of the community in question.

Often we appear to have this the wrong way round. We will talk about fitting the medium to the message – placing ads

only in those magazines which reflect a particular message or attribute of our brand. This limits the reach of thecampaign. Surely the point is to fit the brand’s messages to the media used by the target market?

In delivering an audience that shares values, attitudes and interests with each other, magazines deliver advertisers theopportunity to embed their brands within the values of their readers.

Here’s an example:

Madonna has used magazines as her lead medium for creating a multi-faceted brand. She appears in Good Housekeepingas a mum and in Esquire as a sex goddess, in Newsweek as a iconic businesswoman, in Rolling Stone as the archetypalAmerican musician, in Vogue as part of the New York ‘fashionista’ and so on.




Making brands relevant : messages which fit

The point is that she understands the communities she wants to appeal to. She finds an angle for her ‘brand’ and deliversit through a medium that she knows will reach an audience that appreciates these brand attributes.

This doesn’t mean that advertising need be specific to individual magazines, but the genre of magazines that the targetaudience consume is important to the creative process. Sex Goddess is appropriate to more men’s magazines than justEsquire, New York ‘fashionista’ may be just as meaningful to readers of Elle as Vogue. While the fundamental personalityof the brand must remain consistent, it is essential that the facet(s) of the brand most relevant to each audience areidentified. The brand must be seen to fit the community(s) that it is targeting.

A word in your ear…

A huge potential help to this process is the role of brand ‘advocates’ and the word-of-mouth recommendations which theycan add to the marketing of any brand.

Now, more than ever before, consumers are relying on people they know and trust to advise them on what to buy.Magazine titles fulfil an important role as an advocate and source of referral for consumers. They are crucial to people ingenerating points of view and personal recommendations in day-to-day conversations. This is because the relationshipwhich magazines enjoy with readers shares many of the same characteristics as a close friend.

The role of titles as a trusted agents, acting on behalf of the consumer by helping them edit choice within their lives,means that magazines have the strongest media influence on purchasing behaviour and act as a catalyst for personalrecommendation.

As a consequence, magazines is the marketing channel which contributes most to the recommendations made byconsumers, particularly those whom others look to for advice. Research has shown that magazines readers are likely togenerate two to three times more word-of-mouth recommendations than the average UK adult – and that these are morelikely to convert into action than from the population at large (Ipsos Mori).




Resistors and conductors

While something of a revolution is required in the way media planning is undertaken, themedium that can spearhead this is not so new.

The medium is magazines.

It is the medium which provides the key to overcoming the growing indifference to marketing messages and reinvigoratingthe overall effectiveness of advertising.

Now is time for planners to take a fresh view of magazines – and just how they can help

Why magazines?

Simply because magazines are particularly conducive to engagement.

In terms of the analogy, they are superb ‘conductors’: they possess all those features, outlined opposite, which enablebrand messages to strike a chord with their intended targets.

And because of this, they can overcome the main difficulties presented by this new approach to planning for engagement:

Let’s examine in more detail how magazines can – and do – overcome these key challenges...

Ensuring a good reception…

This is not so much a question of creativity, but of using a medium which will get brandmessages accepted: A medium which helps advertisers to get across to people, rather than one

which makes ads rather more resistible.

Some media help advertising engage the target market, while others hamper this sort of communication. To help identifywhich media are particularly conducive to engagement and which are not, we can make a simple analogy...




We have seen that some aspects of media consumption make effective communication more difficult (we call them‘resistors’) while others help advertising engage the target audience (these are called ‘conductors’).Below is a list (not definitive but hopefully helpful) of media consumption dynamics to avoid and seek out.

Resistors (things to avoid).

The medium is consumed as a default.The medium seeks to control the consumption experience.

The medium is not the primary focus for the consumer.

Advertising is seen to get in the way of enjoying the media experience.

Consumers have negative attitudes to advertising in the medium.

Clutter reduces communication effectiveness (lack of consumer control).

The medium does not segment consumers into meaningful psychographic groups.The consumer does not expect the advertising content of the medium to be relevant to them.

Consumers generally distrust advertising in the medium.

Consumers are light users of the advertiser’s brand (less likely to engage).

Consumers don’t identify themselves with the medium (relationship).

The medium doesn’t prompt personal recommendation or word of mouth.

The medium doesn’t reach key influencers in the marketplace.





Conductors (things that help).

The medium is actively chosen by the consumer.The medium is paid for.

The medium is the primary focus for the consumer.

Advertising is seen as an integral part of the media experience.

Consumers have positive attitudes to advertising in the medium.

Consumer control of media consumption negates the impact of clutter.

The medium segments audiences into sizable groups that share similar attitudes, values and interests.The consumer expects the advertising content of the medium to be relevant to them.

Consumers generally trust advertising in the medium.

Consumers are heavier users of the advertiser’s brand (more likely to engage).

Consumers identify themselves with the medium (relationship).

The medium prompts personal recommendation or word of mouth.

The medium reaches key influencers in the marketplace.



Tell me more

Want to know more? Finding out more about how magazines can reinvigorate theeffectiveness of advertising and successfully engage consumers is easy…

From PPA Marketing?…

There's a good deal of other material available from PPA Marketing to help with the planning of campaigns involvingmagazines - and which flag magazines' particular strengths.

We also have free training available for planners and clients on how to make the most of the magazine medium.If you would like to discuss Passion and Power or free training please contact Colin Robinson at PPA Marketing on0207 400 7563.

…and from you?PPA Marketing and individual magazine publishers would very much like to hear planners’ thoughts and answer anyquestions they may have. There is still much to learn, particularly about magazines' ability to affect specific businessesand any ideas for achieving this with the magazine industry would be gratefully received…

AcknowledgementsPPA Marketing would like to thank:

• The author of Passion and Power, Tim Lucas, Consultant.

• David Hepworth of Development Hell for the covers on page 19.• Peter Dear for editing this booklet.




JOIN THE REVOLUTION, PUT MAGAZINES AT THE HEART OF YOUR COMMUNICATION.

Documents

Passion and Power