TIMES CHANGE
Advertising in specialist magazines comes of age.
As the recession bites, we can be sure the email inboxes of advertising executives across the land will be inundated with enthusiastic compositions from troubled publishers trying desperately to impart a straightforward and timely piece of information – advertising should be maintained, dare they say increased, during these tough times.
The tales of Kellogg, Nike, Apple Corp and countless others which stole market share during leaner days will no longer be the advertising tales of yore, but distilled instead into a modern elixir, a failsafe plan to guide brands through the confusion of the marketplace – and straight onto the pages of newspapers and magazines that these very same publishers produce.
Much of the information will be entirely accurate and verifiable. Historically, recession has indeed been a time when the boldest of companies have been able to gain significant advantage over their competitors. It’s a sound method, but – given the scale of this economic downturn – is this enough now?
“There is so much media now with the Internet and people, and it’s so easy and so cheap to start a newspaper or start a magazine, there's just millions of voices and people want to be heard.”
Rupert Murdoch
At the same time, it has been some while since any serious business has classified advertising as a luxury and, although budgets will no doubt be cut by some more conservative businesses, it is doubtful that we will return to the landscape of old, where consumers are ripe for the picking by clever advertising execs who merely increase their clients visibility whilst all others recede from view.
Positioning brands in the marketplace has to get smarter – recession or not.
“To the public, the press is not David among Goliaths; it has become one of the Goliaths, Big Media, a combination of powerful television networks, large magazine groups and newspaper chains that are near-monopolies. ”
Thomas Griffith.
It would be easy to dismiss the fall in global advertising spend in “Big Media” as purely driven by the tight economic climate. That’s at play, of course, but there is also a shift away from the scattergun approach that’s been employed for so long. (Internet advertising has also taken a slice for sure, and continues to grow rapidly, although it is out with the scope of this article to discuss how people are finding or losing their feet there.)
What many advertisers are discovering is that specialist publications are offering the best of both worlds – a traditional advertising vehicle that can put their brand across to a prime, targeted audience. This shift to narrowcasting (as opposed to broadcasting) seems inevitable.
"Specialist magazines remain much more resilient than generalist titles to what is happening in the broader economy. People don't give up their hobbies and passions easily, even in a downturn. They stick to what they know and love."
Robert Price (Chief Executive, Future UK)
Smaller advertisers, which are far more sensitive to the return on their investment, have known for some time that niche titles have provided good ROI where other, more general advertising approaches have failed. The massive growth in this sector implies that even larger players in the industry are beginning to catch on.
To illustrate my point let me briefly explain one of our own titles, Able Magazine.
Able is the most widely distributed disability lifestyle magazine in the UK, with an ABC verified circulation of slightly less that 32,000. Small beer by most national titles’ standards but when we delve a little deeper we find some interesting facts.
Firstly, our readers are almost exclusively disabled themselves or care for a disabled family member, friend or neighbour. Able obviously offers advertisers in this marketspace unparalleled access to their core audience.
Secondly, over and above our strong (and growing) subscriber base, our controlled distribution network targets purely the disability sector. Shopmobility Schemes, disability organisations, Wheelchair Service Centres, Disabled Living Centres, Disabled Resource Centres, MS Therapy Centres, Occupation Therapy Departments, Spinal Units, Limb Fitting Centres, Independent Living Centres and Disability Offices throughout the Jobcentre Plus network all receive copies. This offers our advertisers a focused market penetration that simply cannot be matched by the general media, or indeed a local branch of WHSmiths. If you have a product or service you want to take to the disability marketplace you would be hard pressed to find another platform as relevant or influential.
Advertising executives who continue to be tied to the “price per readership thousand” that has traditionally dominated the industry are therefore running the risk of falling behind their competitors when it comes to market penetration. Where once executives and agencies saw just smaller print runs and narrower distribution, they should now see minimal wastage, loyal subscribers and focused delivery. Where they see cost per reader they should ask: “What’s the quality of those readers?”
I have a vested interest in all this, of course, but a quick glance at the state of the global industry and the way that specialist magazines are bucking the trend – for example, business/finance and current affairs magazines increased sales during the latter months of 2008 – certainly seems to confirm my beliefs. At a time when most advertising markets are seeing a marked contraction in their sales, niche publications are growing faster than ever.
This is not my attempt to furnish you with a recession busting plan. I believe that longer term shifts in the marketplace will develop in the coming months and years, recession or not, and that these will require new ways of thinking. What the current economic downturn shares with its predecessors, though, is that if you fail to embrace the opportunities it brings, others may well come along and steal your market share from right under your nose.
Steve Craven
Craven Publishing Ltd
Publishers of Able Magazine, End of Term Magazine and Civvy Street Magazine.
