Publishers urged to prioritise magazine media effectiveness
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the UK’s professional body for advertising and media agencies, has recently published a helpful report on the topic of campaign effectiveness. “How to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Communications Plans” sets out best practice, reviewing the growing number of evaluation techniques, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Among others, two of the most powerful approaches are mixed media modelling (econometrics), and test vs control techniques.
The report also steps back and examines the need to set objectives, what goals to consider, and the varying evaluation needs of people with different roles.
From a magazine point of view, the more skilled and insightful the campaign evaluations, and the better the learnings, the greater the opportunities to prove the valuable role of magazine media within the marketing mix. We know that when magazines are used, and the evaluations are conducted using the most relevant forms of magazine data (including readership accumulation), the result is that magazines not only make a significant contribution to a campaign’s effect, but also magazine media are often shown to be among the most cost-efficient of all the media employed.
A collection of such examples, where publishers have worked with advertisers and agencies, can be found in my report for FIPP, Proof of Performance: Making the case for magazine media (POP v2).
FIPP Insight Forum
New evidence of magazine media’s cost-efficiency will be on show at this year’s FIPP Insight Forum (formerly called the Research Forum). This will be held at the offices of publisher Sanoma in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 18-19 May 2015.
The invitation is still open for synopses of potential papers for the Insight Forum; the deadline is 16 February.
Have you got an informative case research project you would like to tell the magazine world about? We are interested in a wide range of topics: how consumers are using print and/or digital editions; accessing magazine content via mobile devices or social media; native advertising; engagement; creating databases for mixed-media campaign evaluation; proof of the medium’s ability to sell products; and so forth.
For more information see our Call for Synopses.
FIPP Insight Awards
The Insight Forum will also see the results of this year’s FIPP Insight Awards, given for the best research projects promoting the use of magazine media as an advertising vehicle.
The judges’ verdicts on Gold and Silver Awards will be announced at a special Insight Awards Dinner at the Forum.
Do you have a research project to enter? The deadline is 6 March.
For more details see our Call for Entries.
Guy Consterdine is the founder and CEO of Guy Consterdine Associates, a research and marketing consultancy specialising in the media industry. Throughout his career he has been interested and involved in developing new measurement techniques and insights into media behaviour and effects, from both an advertising agency and a publisher viewpoint. Guy is insight consultant to FIPP, co-ordinating the international Insight Committee and developing the successful series of Insight Forum conferences and Insight Awards. He is also author of FIPP’s “Proof of Performance: Making the case for magazine media (POP v1 and v2)” and the UK PPA’s “How Magazine Advertising Works”.
