Here the boss advertises
Print media Ringier Romandie hires the editors-in-chief for the promotional campaigns of the magazines L'Hebdo and L'illustré.
Print media Ringier Romandie hires the editors-in-chief for the promotional campaigns of the magazines L'Hebdo and L'illustré.
Last fall, L'Hebdo ran an experimental series of TV commercials in which editor-in-chief Alain Jeannet presented the magazine's strongest content. Newsstand sales increased more than expected, and similar promotions have already been seen in German-speaking Switzerland for Blick and Facts. However, while the latter abandoned the advertising concept without a sound bite, Daniel Pillard, Director of Ringier Romandie, is relying entirely on his telegenic editors-in-chief and is now pushing another wave of commercials for L'illustré.
WW Mr. Pillard, what did the success story look like after the first wave? Daniel Pillard Our first television promotion for L'Hebdo started in October 2004 and was an immediate and impressive success: the number of copies sold per issue rose by 29 percent. This spurred us on to repeat the measure for L'illustré in February. With comparable success: a 37 percent increase in newsstand sales. Surprised by these results, we decided to continue the campaign for both magazines until at least September.
Is that the only reason why you are using this market-screaming concept? Sure, we were inspired by the idea of some French publishing houses that have been using this type of TV promotion for their newspapers for over a year. And since the Publisuisse rates seemed reasonable to us, we decided to give it a try.
What measures have you used so far to achieve similar goals and with what results? Up to now, we have been content with buying good placements at Naville kiosks and offering incentives to sales staff. Very rarely, we flanked this with promotions in the daily titles and local radio stations. But none of this produced measurable results. In contrast, we now accompany the TV commercials with structured and systematic measures in the existing advertising media.
How do editors-in-chief Christophe Passer and Alain Jeannet deal with their new role as sellers of their own press product? Were there never any concerns that they might be pandering to the TV audience? Both feel visibly at ease on the other playing field; they are thrilled to be able to represent their magazines and promote them directly to the readership. The TV commercials are quite simply a very modern and efficient way of communicating the press products. It was important for us to be the first to use this medium in French-speaking Switzerland.
How was this received by the editorial team members and the audience? For the most part, the journalists in both editorial offices are proud that their bosses appreciate the content of the magazines on television. The audience reacted with surprise and slight amusement, but very positively, which encouraged us to continue with the exercise.
Will you now shift the media mix, or have you increased the advertising budget as a whole? The investments for the TV commercials were specifically saved in other items of the marketing budget that have lost importance: Reader promotions, merchandising production, etc.
Will there be image campaigns for L'illustré and L'Hebdo in addition to product advertising, or will these be scaled back in future? we had not planned an image campaign on this scale for the current year, neither for L'illustré nor for L'Hebdo. The other current advertising media will remain unchanged.
Are Ringier products in German-speaking Switzerland now also interested in the TV spot concept? Blick has also already used the TV promotion. Other titles could follow if the success of our campaigns is repeated.
"Easily amused": TV spot with Christophe Passer, L'illustré.
Last fall, L'Hebdo ran an experimental series of TV commercials in which editor-in-chief Alain Jeannet presented the magazine's strongest content. Newsstand sales increased more than expected, and similar promotions have already been seen in German-speaking Switzerland for Blick and Facts. However, while the latter abandoned the advertising concept without a sound bite, Daniel Pillard, Director of Ringier Romandie, is relying entirely on his telegenic editors-in-chief and is now pushing another wave of commercials for L'illustré.
WW Mr. Pillard, what did the success story look like after the first wave? Daniel Pillard Our first television promotion for L'Hebdo started in October 2004 and was an immediate and impressive success: the number of copies sold per issue rose by 29 percent. This spurred us on to repeat the measure for L'illustré in February. With comparable success: a 37 percent increase in newsstand sales. Surprised by these results, we decided to continue the campaign for both magazines until at least September.
Is that the only reason why you are using this market-screaming concept? Sure, we were inspired by the idea of some French publishing houses that have been using this type of TV promotion for their newspapers for over a year. And since the Publisuisse rates seemed reasonable to us, we decided to give it a try.
What measures have you used so far to achieve similar goals and with what results? Up to now, we have been content with buying good placements at Naville kiosks and offering incentives to sales staff. Very rarely, we flanked this with promotions in the daily titles and local radio stations. But none of this produced measurable results. In contrast, we now accompany the TV commercials with structured and systematic measures in the existing advertising media.
How do editors-in-chief Christophe Passer and Alain Jeannet deal with their new role as sellers of their own press product? Were there never any concerns that they might be pandering to the TV audience? Both feel visibly at ease on the other playing field; they are thrilled to be able to represent their magazines and promote them directly to the readership. The TV commercials are quite simply a very modern and efficient way of communicating the press products. It was important for us to be the first to use this medium in French-speaking Switzerland.
How was this received by the editorial team members and the audience? For the most part, the journalists in both editorial offices are proud that their bosses appreciate the content of the magazines on television. The audience reacted with surprise and slight amusement, but very positively, which encouraged us to continue with the exercise.
Will you now shift the media mix, or have you increased the advertising budget as a whole? The investments for the TV commercials were specifically saved in other items of the marketing budget that have lost importance: Reader promotions, merchandising production, etc.
Will there be image campaigns for L'illustré and L'Hebdo in addition to product advertising, or will these be scaled back in future? we had not planned an image campaign on this scale for the current year, neither for L'illustré nor for L'Hebdo. The other current advertising media will remain unchanged.
Are Ringier products in German-speaking Switzerland now also interested in the TV spot concept? Blick has also already used the TV promotion. Other titles could follow if the success of our campaigns is repeated.
"Easily amused": TV spot with Christophe Passer, L'illustré.
Interview: Luca Aloisi
