Dynamite for publishers
Print advertising is often considered inflexible. That doesn't have to be the case, says Publicitas, which is helping publishers become more flexible.
Would you like to reach around a quarter of all households in the Zürcher Unterland with advertising at low cost? Then you can take part in an online auction of ten full-page and ten half-page advertisements in the Zürcher Unterländer (ZU) and the Neues Bülacher Tagblatt (NBT) until August 22 (4 pm). The starting price per page is CHF 999, per half page CHF 555, which corresponds to a discount of around 80 percent compared to the normal rate.
This appeal is not fictitious. It can be found on the Publicitas website www.dynamicpricing.ch. And there you can also read that the ZürichseeZeitung (ZSZ) held a similar auction before the summer vacations, and that the titles of the Société Neuchâteloise de la Presse (SNP) L'Impartial and L'Express were even auctioned in April. What all the auctions have in common is that they were launched in cooperation with Publicitas and only advertisements in Monday editions were offered. However, while the SNP newspapers each registered a total of 45 advertisements for auction by the end of the year with different starting prices depending on the season (at CHF 1500, 2500 and 3000), ZSZ, Zürcher Unterländer (ZU) and Neues Bülacher Tagblatt (NBT) limited themselves to advertisements in the summer and fall respectively and to just one starting price each.
Positive resultsThe experiences at the ZSZ and in French-speaking Switzerland were similar: "All advertisements were booked, there were no gaps," says ZSZ Managing Director Erland Herkenrath. "The average price achieved was 30 percent of the starting price," adds SNP Director Jacques Matthey. The minimum was only slightly above the starting price, while the maximum was around twice the value. This means that barely half of the normal price was ever reached. "That's true," says Herkenrath, "but that's still more than if we had to place filler ads - as is so often the case on Mondays." In addition, sales were even 40 percent higher than expected. Matthey mentions another aspect: "The auction made us the talk of the local market. In total, around 100 customers took part, including some new customers."
The initial results on both sides are positive, but there are still restrictions: "We certainly won't be doing this all the time, because we don't want to undermine our tariff," says Herkenrath. He therefore only wants to discuss whether and how ZSZ and ZU will continue with the Züriland-Zeitung. Matthey, for his part, points out that such campaigns do stimulate the advertising market somewhat. "But they can only ever make a small contribution to our overall turnover."
This assessment is also shared in principle by Publicitas. However, Séverine Lago, Head of the Dynamic Pricing project and recently appointed Head of Market Development, emphasizes that the auctions described are initial tests in local markets. "We want to use them to gain experience and sound out the needs of the various market partners," she says. The aim is to make print advertising more flexible. "We want to dust off the image of the press and show that print advertising can be modern and dynamic," says Lago. Over the past two years, her team has researched various industries around the world and compiled ideas for more flexible pricing. A good 40 different offers are currently being tested with ten directing publishers and more than 25 newspapers or combined newspapers. These are not just auctions. Other instruments, such as last-minute offers from the Aargauer Zeitung and Edipresse titles, are currently underway or still in preparation. Not all ideas are web-based either; some are brought to the market by sales representatives, such as "Name your own price". Customers can suggest a price themselves. If his offer is equal to or higher than the minimum price set by the publisher, he receives the advertisement. Another idea is standby ads: The customer books an ad without a fixed date, for example sometime in September. The publisher then publishes it when it has free space. The Dynamic Pricing team also launched the "Pubbooster", a first cross-media package for the local market: for CHF 330, for example, the customer receives a small advertisement, the printing of a flyer, a cinepicture, graphics included, plus a month's presence in the PDF edition of the newspaper and an industry analysis.
Not all dynamic pricing ideas are new. For example, it can happen that Lago's team simply suggests a traditional summer discount to a publisher because they have never tried it before. Lago does not see her role primarily in the development of new products, but in the systematic collection and processing of ideas - and as a motivator to try out new things. "We want to show that the prize can be used as a marketing tool for targeted offers," she says. At the same time, she also wants to create the conditions to facilitate trial runs. For example, while the SNP titles still had to be auctioned via the ricardo.ch website, ZSZ and ZU/NBT already had their own P auction platform at their disposal.
Markus Knöpfli
Not yet a major successThe dynamic pricing project has also caused displeasure in the industry. The P, the guardian of the grail of tariff fidelity, is almost only active in local markets and is primarily thinking about discounts, it is said. Séverine Lago counters this by saying that she does not want to limit herself to baking small rolls, but that she understands when publishers carry out initial tests in the local market. In addition, the publisher always retains control of the rates, even at auctions. "We only advise them," she emphasizes. She also emphasized that there would be no undermining of tariff loyalty. Lago's assertion that dynamic pricing measures had already led to six-figure monthly sales was also met with a shake of the head. "A growth rate of several 100,000 francs per month is now realistic," she wrote in mid-July. This does indeed seem a little grandiose in view of the fact that only two auctions have delivered measurable results - which also never generated 100,000 francs per month. But Lago is adamant: "There are many other newspapers and around 40 different offers, so this statement doesn't worry me." (mk)
This appeal is not fictitious. It can be found on the Publicitas website www.dynamicpricing.ch. And there you can also read that the ZürichseeZeitung (ZSZ) held a similar auction before the summer vacations, and that the titles of the Société Neuchâteloise de la Presse (SNP) L'Impartial and L'Express were even auctioned in April. What all the auctions have in common is that they were launched in cooperation with Publicitas and only advertisements in Monday editions were offered. However, while the SNP newspapers each registered a total of 45 advertisements for auction by the end of the year with different starting prices depending on the season (at CHF 1500, 2500 and 3000), ZSZ, Zürcher Unterländer (ZU) and Neues Bülacher Tagblatt (NBT) limited themselves to advertisements in the summer and fall respectively and to just one starting price each.
Positive resultsThe experiences at the ZSZ and in French-speaking Switzerland were similar: "All advertisements were booked, there were no gaps," says ZSZ Managing Director Erland Herkenrath. "The average price achieved was 30 percent of the starting price," adds SNP Director Jacques Matthey. The minimum was only slightly above the starting price, while the maximum was around twice the value. This means that barely half of the normal price was ever reached. "That's true," says Herkenrath, "but that's still more than if we had to place filler ads - as is so often the case on Mondays." In addition, sales were even 40 percent higher than expected. Matthey mentions another aspect: "The auction made us the talk of the local market. In total, around 100 customers took part, including some new customers."
The initial results on both sides are positive, but there are still restrictions: "We certainly won't be doing this all the time, because we don't want to undermine our tariff," says Herkenrath. He therefore only wants to discuss whether and how ZSZ and ZU will continue with the Züriland-Zeitung. Matthey, for his part, points out that such campaigns do stimulate the advertising market somewhat. "But they can only ever make a small contribution to our overall turnover."
This assessment is also shared in principle by Publicitas. However, Séverine Lago, Head of the Dynamic Pricing project and recently appointed Head of Market Development, emphasizes that the auctions described are initial tests in local markets. "We want to use them to gain experience and sound out the needs of the various market partners," she says. The aim is to make print advertising more flexible. "We want to dust off the image of the press and show that print advertising can be modern and dynamic," says Lago. Over the past two years, her team has researched various industries around the world and compiled ideas for more flexible pricing. A good 40 different offers are currently being tested with ten directing publishers and more than 25 newspapers or combined newspapers. These are not just auctions. Other instruments, such as last-minute offers from the Aargauer Zeitung and Edipresse titles, are currently underway or still in preparation. Not all ideas are web-based either; some are brought to the market by sales representatives, such as "Name your own price". Customers can suggest a price themselves. If his offer is equal to or higher than the minimum price set by the publisher, he receives the advertisement. Another idea is standby ads: The customer books an ad without a fixed date, for example sometime in September. The publisher then publishes it when it has free space. The Dynamic Pricing team also launched the "Pubbooster", a first cross-media package for the local market: for CHF 330, for example, the customer receives a small advertisement, the printing of a flyer, a cinepicture, graphics included, plus a month's presence in the PDF edition of the newspaper and an industry analysis.
Not all dynamic pricing ideas are new. For example, it can happen that Lago's team simply suggests a traditional summer discount to a publisher because they have never tried it before. Lago does not see her role primarily in the development of new products, but in the systematic collection and processing of ideas - and as a motivator to try out new things. "We want to show that the prize can be used as a marketing tool for targeted offers," she says. At the same time, she also wants to create the conditions to facilitate trial runs. For example, while the SNP titles still had to be auctioned via the ricardo.ch website, ZSZ and ZU/NBT already had their own P auction platform at their disposal.
Markus Knöpfli
Not yet a major successThe dynamic pricing project has also caused displeasure in the industry. The P, the guardian of the grail of tariff fidelity, is almost only active in local markets and is primarily thinking about discounts, it is said. Séverine Lago counters this by saying that she does not want to limit herself to baking small rolls, but that she understands when publishers carry out initial tests in the local market. In addition, the publisher always retains control of the rates, even at auctions. "We only advise them," she emphasizes. She also emphasized that there would be no undermining of tariff loyalty. Lago's assertion that dynamic pricing measures had already led to six-figure monthly sales was also met with a shake of the head. "A growth rate of several 100,000 francs per month is now realistic," she wrote in mid-July. This does indeed seem a little grandiose in view of the fact that only two auctions have delivered measurable results - which also never generated 100,000 francs per month. But Lago is adamant: "There are many other newspapers and around 40 different offers, so this statement doesn't worry me." (mk)
