The Herald & Weekly Times is running a great encyclopedia CD-ROM promotion on weekends at the moment. It’s boosting sales and promoting the newspaper as being concerned about building knowledge. The scale out of CDs has been handled well and we have good marketing collateral to enable us to promote. Wins all around.
In SA, as I blogged a few days ago, the story is different. There, Advertiser Newspapers is about to run what will be an very successful promotion where readers will build a robot over weeks. The promotion is to run exclusively with BP and On the Run outlets. Newsagent are the losers.
The H&WT and Advertiser Newspapers are both owned by News Ltd. News wants its newspapers in as many outlets as possible. It also tells newsagents that they remain its key distribution and retail channel. Yet News executives in seem to disagree on the value of the newsagent relationship.
Why News runs its promotions differently, through different retail partners, is a conundrum. If there is an issue with newsagents, talk to them and demand it be fixed. Don’t turn your back on the channel as has happened last year in SA and is about to happen again as this will only make matters worse. The newsagent channel is an asset to News and ought to be nurtured as such.
My newsagency is open 7 days a week. I comply with all News’ requirements. I promote their offers aggressively. If the H&WT was to run a major retail based promotion in a channel other than newsagencies I’d have to consider a commercial response. News either believes newsagents are their key channel or not.
Photo from Herald Sun website.