Entries for month: February 2012
Turn subscribers into brand ambassadors
28 February 2012 · By Nadine Chevolleau
For the last four years, thousands of Toronto Star subscribers have acted as “brand ambassadors” for the newspaper through our annual Christmas holiday offer promotion.
A brand ambassador can be described as an individual hired by a company to act as the representative of the company with respect to sales and marketing. This individual is meant to symbolise the corporate image.
Many organisations pay big money to well-known entertainment and sports personalities to act as their brand ambassadors and endorse their products or services. But there is nothing more authentic than having your own customers sing your praise.
Our annual holiday offer promotion allows Toronto Star subscribers the opportunity to give a free Saturday gift subscription to their non-subscriber friends and family. Based on the response that we have had from subscribers over the last four years, they absolutely love this programme. This past December, subscribers gave a Star gift subscription to more than 9,000 non-subscribers in the Toronto area.
You may think that giving away 9,000 free Saturday subscriptions sounds like a major investment. However, the marketing cost of acquiring these new readers was a mere C$2.60 per sample. We kept the marketing cost for this campaign low by utilising our contractors’ carrier force to deliver the promotional letters to select subscribers. This allowed for significant savings on postage. We also sent an e-blast and ran in-paper ads promoting the offer to our subscribers.
...[more]Newspapers must know when and how to engage their audience
20 February 2012 · By Anne Crassweller
Newspapers and all newsmedia are in the news-breaking business; it’s a race to tell us what we need to know — you heard it first, folks!
Stepping back today, though, I think when and how the news is delivered can and should vary depending on the circumstances. Gone are the days of newspaper hawkers shouting “Extra, extra: Read all about it,” to announce news in print. Today news is instantaneous, and technology has given the task of breaking news to the Internet channel and, to a degree, the broadcast channels. So, how do daily newspapers bring news to their readers?
I was in the car listening to a radio programme that was pre-recorded when, 5 minutes into it and 5 minutes after the hourly news, the station interrupted with an announcement about the much-awaited verdict in a highly publicised murder case. By the time they introduced the news flash, gave background, reported the verdict, and said details would follow at the news break, I had lost 10 minutes of the documentary I had been looking forward to hearing. Was that worth it? Well, the answer will vary by individual, but I was quite miffed!
The radio station “missed the point,” in my view. I inevitably would have heard the verdict; I would have had to be living in a cave to miss that information. In 20 minutes, there would have been another news break, or a quick check on my mobile would have given me that “news” in short order. It could have waited and certainly did not need to interrupt what I had chosen to do at that time. What most people in Canada wanted from their news outlets that day was the story behind the verdict.
...[more]New JC Penney approach holds lessons for newspapers
12 February 2012 · By Kathleen Coleman
If you can get beyond the screaming women in the television commercials, take a minute to tune in and listen to what JC Penney is attempting: to radically change the way customers shop their stores and digital sites. Their approach is research-based, and puts the four Ps — pricing, promotion, presentation, and product — front and center. And underlying the key tenets of JC Penney's changes are object lessons for newspaper companies.
First, using past sales data, the company looked at consumers' actual purchasing behaviour, and came up with what it terms “Fair and Square” pricing, which means shoppers can expect lower prices in stores at all times. To reach this conclusion, research showed 72% of JC Penney's revenue came from selling items priced at least 50% off. Thus, in the example cited in most recent news stories about the “Fair and Square” strategy, a T-shirt that had retailed for US$14 but typically sold — after markdowns — at US$6, would now be priced at a US$7 every day.
Part two of “Fair and Square” means monthly deals, and in the T-shirt example, the garment would now be marked US$6. The final piece of “Fair and Square” is called “best price” which happens on the first and third Fridays of the month. Said T-shirt would now be marked $4, to clear out seasonal colors and bring in new merchandise.
...[more]Will you allow Aurasma to impact your product?
02 February 2012 · By John Newby
How many of you reading this blog post have ever heard of “Aurasma?” If you haven't heard of this new technology, I would suggest you Google it and spend a minute or two digesting what you are about to find. While technology certainly continues to provide printed newspapers with immense challenges, I would suggest that to those willing to think outside the box and view the world through a different lens, it has also provided immense opportunity.
The beauty of TV years ago, and the Internet more recently, is that both can take the topic and subject you are viewing and literally bring it to life; they can bring it into your living room or the location in which you are viewing it. Traditional newspapers, while offering an excellent reading experience, are unable to provide the experience that live TV and the Internet can.
Speed ahead to the era of Aurasma! Now newspapers finally have the ability to provide real action and visual enjoyment embedded in each story. Point your smartphone or tablet at the picture on the sports page and watch the players come alive and view action highlights. Point your smartphone or tablet at the ad previewing a coming box office hit and watch as a theater quality preview comes to life. All that and so much more are possible with technology.
Point that same smartphone or tablet at an advertiser's ad and watch a 30-second commercial or, better yet, view a full-blown infomercial. The audience and revenue opportunities from both the news content and ad content are practically endless with this type of technology. It takes the latest fad, QR codes, and bumps it up to a whole new level — without the ugly black and white square codes all over your product.
...[more]
