In the past our Company was part of the international network of publishers experimenting the Multiplying the Media Effect Research Programme. In Italy, as with all the countries where these experiments were carried out, the results substantially confirmed the enormous increase in the efficacy of communication when the Periodical Press is added to a planned use of Commercial TV. From these Research Programmes the multiplying effect has appeared so relevant that now Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, which in the meantime has become part of the Multinational and Multimedia Fininvest Group, is concentrating more on the extraordinary increase in communicative effectiveness resulting from this Multiplier effect than on the traditional competition between the two media Commercial TV and Periodical Press.
The essence of the Media Multiplier concept is that the combination of print and television advertising does a better job for the advertiser than the use of television on its own. This paper is divided into 4 parts. In the first part I discuss the Multiplier concept and explain why no fewer than 20 publishers and publisher organisations from 14 countries around the world have come together to promote it. Plus one far-sighted advertising agency. In the second part I concentrate on one aspect of the research evidence which supports the Multiplier proposition, in order to emphasise the need to understand very clearly the strengths, and weaknesses, of the supporting material. The third and fourth parts look to the future. In the third part I spend a little time describing two significant changes which are taking place in the media market, as far as research is concerned, while I conclude by attempting to bring all this together by outlining a research strategy which publishers who agree the need to expand the size of the print medium might like to consider. It is a strategy which will last them until end of the century.
They fear that the develop of the commercial television in Europe could restrain the press. A great deal of attention has been paid to this topic by the Italian advertising sector and by the legislature. We shall attempt to answer showing that this hypothesis isn't TRUE via an analysis at two different levels: An empirical level in which we shall demonstrate that the decline of investments in press advertising due to television is an optical illusion and that, on the contrary, there has never been such growth in investments in press advertising as we have seen in the TV boom years. A deductive level in which the empirical evidence in confirmed by using an economic model (indifference curves, the "income" effect and the Giffin paradox) that explains why, in Italy, the growth of commercial television has had a positive effect on press advertising investments as well. The reduction in television prices since the RAI monopoly gave way to competition from commercial networks has probably had an "income" effect, shifting portions company income from other ways of communicating with and putting pressure on consumers towards classic advertising, to the benefit of both the press and television
Germany was and still is a print media market. How much longer, if at all, will it remain a print media market? Their pattern of advertising expenditures varied only marginally during the two decades before 1985 the beginning of private commercial TV in Germany, and a change of the media scene. After two or three years of fairly slow growth of cable penetration, terrestrial re- broadcasting of SAT-1, RTL+ and Tele 5 pushed the availability of the private stations to a more than recognisable level. They now reach 70 to 80% of all German homes. The fact that private TV can air commercials after 08:00 p.m., when public sector networks are not permitted to, has attracted many new advertisers to TV. Advertisers who used to consider the cost of producing commercials too high in view of limited air time available, now are willing to make the investment, buying time on both the new private stations and the public sector stations. This had a noticeable effect on the share of advertising money being invested in the various media. Although the private commercial stations still are 30% behind the nearly 100% penetration level of the public sector stations their share of advertising revenue is expected to exceed that of ARD and ZDF for the first time. The share of print advertising is declining, for both magazines and newspapers. Since print media are not in the position to stop this trend, they have to come up with strategic solutions to defend as much of their share as possible. One such solution can be studies of advertising effectiveness, an examination of cost effectiveness may show that the overall costs of time and production may make a TV campaign too expensive for certain target groups. Another may be an examination of whether a combination of TV and print may not only be more cost efficient, but also provides better learning, recall and recognition results.
Studies carried out on the press in the majority of cases concentrate on investigations of the readership. Focusing on the various types of readers of a single title, and classifying them both socio-demographically and in terms of social behaviour, is of course extremely important. However it is clear that media research should not neglect the raising of questions relating to the title itself. The displacement of the focus of research to the medium itself through indicators such as degree of familiarity, affinity, and attractiveness, promotes an understanding of what goes into making up the image assets of a title. Since 1982 BVA has been developing measurement studies whose aim is precisely to focus on the image of the tides in the major press families. In association with Diapason, we carry out regular investigations on the general information press, TV journalism and women's press. In the course of the "New Publishing Strategies" seminar, held in Hamburg in 1989 I outlined the theoretical and methodological foundation of such studies.
This paper is divided into four parts. The first part provides a brief overview of the free publication market which in the UK represents an estimated 30% of print advertising expenditure, dominated by controlled circulation business titles and local newspapers. The second part provides a case study of a series of pieces of research conducted on behalf of Financial Adviser. This shows how research helped circulation targeting and editorial design improve Financial Adviser's position in its marketplace. The third part makes some general observations about the need for research from the publisher's point of view, how advertisers can judge free publications together with evidence on readers' opinions of two titles. In the last section brief conclusions are drawn about the role of research for free publications, and what might constitute a successful free title.
The main influence on gross press advertising revenue is the general health of the economy, as measured by GDP per capita. The same is not TRUE for TV. The size of the commercial audience on TV is limited both by the nature of the medium and by state legislative interference, in ways that don't affect press. For TV, the main influence on gross advertising revenue is the size of the actual commercial audience; GDP per capita is most closely correlated with the price charged in each country, ie. the cost per thousand gross impacts. In these circumstances it is difficult to see how changes in TV (of which there are many) can have a major effect on press revenues. The evidence from a number of countries over the last 10 years is that TV tends to be more complementary to press than competitive. Where press revenues fall on the introduction or expansion of commercial TV, it is as much due to general economic causes as to the introduction of TV itself, and tends to be very short-term. In general, real press revenues are more likely to rise than fall when TV expands.
The state of understanding of the effects of print advertising is not as clearly developed as that for TV. This reflects the much more complicated nature of press exposure and the difficulties which that in turn presents for looking at advertising effects. There are a number of reasons why understanding of TV is further advanced, but there is one key one. It is possible with TV to relate advertising effects to the timing of exposure. In press you can look at the effects but it has been problematic to look at when exposure to an execution occurs. In June 1990 we conducted 1,883 interviews with women aged 15+, collecting data that has allowed us to build a picture of how any given press schedule will build exposures over time. The lag in exposure for some types of publication is quite substantial. Ad agencies in the UK now have access to the software which allows them to look at their plans over time. In June 1991 we conducted 1,925 interviews amongst men which completed the picture of how exposure builds over time - extending both the target audience and the range of publications we can look at. This will be added to the database and software at the beginning of 1992. We are now in a position to relate exposures to effects and during the course of 1991 we are interviewing 17,5 women in a client-funded study called MagTrak to examine this relationship. We can do this using a computer modelling programme which we have been using for television executions for the past 12 years. This will allow us to examine a hypothesis that we have developed from examination of existing press tracking studies - that after a certain number of exposures, the effect of a press execution diminishes, i.e. it begins to wear out. All these studies have potential far reaching implications for the planning of press schedules. This paper describes the steps we have taken so far, the findings they have produced and the questions we will be able to answer when the 1991 MagTrak experiment is completed
This paper describes the work undertaken by Family Circle magazine, in conjunction with Citicorp POS Information Services, and Simmons Market Research Bureau, to measure the effects of magazine advertising on the sales volume of advertised products. This study used scanner data from supermarkets to compare actual purchase behavior, between households purchasing a specific issue of Family Circle, and a demographically matched group of households not known to have purchased the issue. The first part of the paper discusses the background of the study and its methodology, including descriptions of the household specific data collection process, and participant selection, as well as information pertinent to the media consumption patterns of the test and control groups. The second part of the study deals with the findings, which support the conclusion that magazine advertising, indeed, has a substantial and measurable effect on product volume. General findings are presented first, followed by a series of case studies showing detailed results for the four most effective advertisements.
Advertising testing should be an integral part of a successful brand management system. For this reason the continuous tracking of consumer attitudes in a product category is recommended. With computer-interview disks always in the field, the tracked sample serves as an ever-ready control for the rapid and accurate testing of ads, animatics and concepts. It also requires minimal levels of administration. A further possibility is that the tracking and test data can be modelled, providing a simulation facility for the reliable 'what-if testing of advertising concepts to ensure that the strategy is on target even before it enters the creative process and field testing. One outcome from this ad testing and the choice models that can be derived from them is that emotively-accurate reader profiles or segments can be determined that can be used convincingly by advertisers to market to appropriate advertisers, and even to select those advertisers that will best contribute to those aspects of the title's image that are attracting most new readers. Between the two techniques and following the principles of successful pretesting it is possible to both confidently show why and whether the advertising for a title is working, and also to provide cost-effective feedback to advertisers on how their ads are working
Eleven separate research studies, covering as many marketing places, were conducted to determine which marketing communications tools are most useful in providing information about products and services specified by managers who have purchasing responsibility for their companies. Marketing communications evaluated were specialized business publications, trade shows, salespeople, conventions/seminars, direct mail, directories, daily newspapers, general business magazines, network television, radio, newsmagazines, consumer magazines and cable television. The eleven marketplaces included architecture, packaging, networking, fleet/trucking, grocery, restaurant, office supply, advertising, chemical, home improvement, and medical. Cumulatively, across the 11 segments, specialized business publications were rated first as the most useful source of information about business products, with salespeople, second. Trade shows were listed third; convention/seminars, fourth; and direct mail, fifth. At the bottom were cable television, general magazines and radio. Of the 11 marketplaces, specialized business publications were significantly ahead in seven, and salespeople in two. In brief, the values, both of targeted editorial and print advertising represented by the business publications covering the 11 different markets were established by these studies.