Entries for month: December 2010
Practicalities of integrated advertising sales: “you are a digital company with printing presses”
23 December 2010 · By Kirk MacDonald
Assuming we have made the case in previous blogs for why the Denver Post's Integrated Sales Model is imperative to a newspaper’s ability to compete and survive in an increasingly furious media environment, it is time to take a look at how the model works in a live sales situation.
Last week our account team, along with President/CEO Jerry Grilly and myself, were meeting with the corporate and regional executives for the largest automotive group in the U.S. Our team included the classified advertising vice president, the account rep and the manager of Ad Taxi, our digital ad network.
In a three-hour presentation, our focus was on five areas:
...[more]Print and digital advertising sales: we can no longer drink from the same well
14 December 2010 · By Kirk Allen
I recently did an interesting exercise to compare the portion of our business which runs print only, combination print and digital, and digital only. I quickly discovered that there's significant opportunity in growing our pure digital customer base as well as growing the print customers who have yet to dip their toes in our digital waters.
As it turns out, only a very small percentage of our existing customers run digital only. It was a shockingly low number, especially at the local market level. If you have not done so already, I'd urge you to do a similar exercise.
What has also become clear to me is that we can no longer drink from the same well. Newspapers are no longer traditional media companies.
We are in a fortunate position with our superior content and desirable audiences delivered on multiple platforms that we should command more growth with this unique position. In many cases we've overpriced ourselves with local advertisers. Digital is a great vehicle to earn their business back through a variety of geographic and behavioral targeting products.
...[more]Groupon’s rapid rise a reminder to newspapers why culture of constant innovation required
06 December 2010 · By Tyler Mack
Newspapers need new ideas and quick action when consumer trends indicate a large scale following through a new medium. The Groupon phenomenon emphasizes that with great clarity, and our sales staff (traditional, integrated or converted digital ambassadors) needs to keep up with these trends and be able to quickly adapt to new kinds of sales approaches with their clients.
Newspapers have actually been doing a deal of the day in one form or another for many, many years. Just not quite like Groupon and its multitude of copycats.
Groupon’s meteoric rise to a US$6 billion dollar valued company before it’s reached the age of 2 was accomplished through fairly traditional means: use an existing concept and modernize it. Socialize it and get consumers to take on some of the marketing responsibility (word of mouth). Add to it with a slick design and user interface and promote the hell out of it to build a formidable database.
Utilizing social networking and a business model that banks on the credibility and popularity of other businesses, Groupon is cashing in on a challenging economy and tapping into the strongest online advertising tactic: opt-in consumers. By offering value in exchange for information and soliciting people to voluntarily raise their hands and indicate that they are interested in receiving advertising offers, they have put the consumers in charge which creates the perfect recipe for rapid growth.
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