Meredith long-term research study continues to drive efficient sales for advertisers

Britta Cleveland from Meredith Corporation, USA, demonstrated how the company’s brands are producing sales uplifts and impressive ROI at the FIPP Research Forum today (24 May) in Barcelona.

From 2009-2011 pilot testing took place on 14 brands, but Meredith decided that they wanted to start guaranteeing sales to their advertisers and a positive ROI, meaning for every US$1 spent by the advertiser, Meredith would guarantee this and more in incremental sales.

Therefore, it was decided that further research would be carried out on 25 Meredith brands, with the goal of proving that magazine advertising works. Sales lifts ranged between 3-36 per cent, and more importantly, said Cleveland, every brand showed positive ROI. For every dollar invested in Meredith titles, the 25 brands analysed generated an average ROI of $7.81 resulting in $12.2m in annual incremental sales.

Cleveland demonstrated the methodology by using the example of one brand, Ken’s Salad Dressing. The goal with the advertising was to measure the effectiveness of it on product sales versus matched control and prior year. Prior to 2012, the brand hadn’t advertised in any media channel, but after advertising in Meredith titles, a sales lift of 18 per cent was achieved.

Meredith partners with Nielsen to carry out this research, who also measures digital ad impact, too. Cleveland said that compared to Meredith’s average ROI of $7.81, portals/ad networks ROI $2.79.

“We see a lot of money moving into broad digital”, said Cleveland, “but running in magazines can actually give you a much higher ROI”.

The FIPP Research Forum is a two-day event for publishers, researchers and marketing executives in the magazine business. It has attracted some of the world’s leading magazine research professionals, who meet to discuss the latest issues and developments in the industry worldwide.

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