Meredith study proves magazines drive TV viewing

Britta Cleveland, senior VP, research solutions, Meredith Corporation, USA, presented a study to attendees at the FIPP Research Forum today (17 June) in Hamburg about how magazines drive TV viewing.
“Typically, money is spent on TV in order to get TV viewing,” said Cleveland. “Magazines are not usually used to drive TV viewing because they’re not always considered immediate enough. However, people are most likely to take recommendations from other people – we find this is a very persuasive method, and magazines are good at that.”
Therefore, Meredith decided to experiment and offered its readers a pilot episode of a new TV show, and welcomed their feedback. This feedback was incorporated into an ad campaign that marketed the show in eight of its titles, to see if magazines really could drive TV viewing.
Meredith partnered with Nielsen (using its People Meter Panel) to find out who watched the initial episodes of the show, and matched it to their subscriber lists
Key findings of ‘Magazine advertising drives sales – and TV viewing’:
  • Monthly magazines offer an ideal environment to reach network primetime viewers
  • Exposure to tune-in advertising drove viewership to the first episode (+6 per cent) and second episode (+44 per cent)
  • Campaign effectively drove younger (18-49) vs. older Meredith readers
  • Targeting female-focussed magazines provided the push needed to change behaviour of hard to reach men (18-49)
  • Exposed audience more likely to watch both episodes; retention especially high among men 18-49

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