Author: Mark Fletcher

On Monday newsagents have an opportunity with the release of Hot Boys of TV, a one-shot from Pacific Magazines as a brand extension TV Hits.

Only available through newsagents and Big W, our channel ought to make the most of the opportunity.  Pacific is promoting the title through social media and this is bound to drive interest and traffic to our channel.

My plan is to promote this title at the front of the newsagency – in a high traffic location – as well as with teen magazines.

There is considerable social media buzz about the launch on Facebook and Twitter.  This is being driven by Pacific Magazines and encourages people to go to their newsagency to pick up a copy.

We are promoting the Christmas issue of Family Circle magazine with placement at the counter as well as placement out the front of the newsagency facing into the mall.  This is NOT a title to stick in magazine shelves hoping that customers find it.  You need to chase them and let them know that the Christmas issue is out.  We did this last year and sold out, twice!  Get in early and grab sales from the supermarkets.

We are promoting the new ACP cookbook: The Cooker Cookbook with placement with our food titles as well as in an impulse location at the entrance to our women’s aisle, opposite our weeklies.  With these ACP cookbook titles we get our best results by going out immediately they come on sale, before other retailers get the title and grab sales.  We move new titles around, leaving it in a set place once we see it selling particularly well from a location.

Further to my post on the weekend about suggesting titles those browsing a specific title may be interested in, here is an example of more personal magazine promotion by our team.  In this example, Tessa explains why she recommends the UK Hello magazine.

We are not directing the magazines to be promoted or choosing the words they are to use.  I think it’s important that team members giving a recommendation have the freedom to make this a genuine recommendation.

I like this idea because of the personal nature it.  I also like that it shows that we engage with magazines ourselves.  You’d never see this in a supermarket.

We have been promoting Time Out Melbourne at the counter over the last few days, next to our Ticketek counter actually – probably the best place in the shop for the title.  In addition to the magazine itself, the team has placed a pitch for this issue.

While I am happy that we have done the work to promote Time Out Melbourne, I think that the publisher could do more to help drive over the counter sales of the title.  For example, at their website they could list stockists for the title.  This is something all magazine publishers should do – support the retailers who support you.

We have been promoting the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly with this display in one of my newsagencies.  Sales for this issue have been excellent in the first few days, stronger than recently experienced.

This display placement is good as it’s between our women’s magazine aisle and greeting cards – being seen by shoppers across two key product categories.  We can see from the sales data that our AWW activity is driving impulse purchases.

We have been playing with an approach of recommending other titles a browser of a title may be interested in at one of my newsagencies.  In the example in the photo, someone looking at Australian Tattoo is suggested to take a look at Heavy Duty. Our goal here is not to block the purchase of Australian Tattoo but hopefully grab this purchase along with a purchase of Heavy Duty.

One of the reasons I own newsagencies is to experiment.  This idea came from one of our team members at this newsagency.  I think it’s brilliant.  They created the artwork in-store.  It further personalises our magazine offer while at the same time inviting browsers to look beyond what they think may interest them.

I’ve left the team in the newsagency to play with this innovation themselves, I’m keen to see where they take it.

I like the idea because it shows off a terrific point of difference around our magazine offer compared to other nearby retailers offering magazines.  I think this is what we need to do, to be creative in our approach to magazines rather than retreating as some newsagents appear to be doing.

In this newsagency, magazine sales are growing at an excellent rate, thanks in part to innovations like this.

Putting their Melbourne Cup themed That’s Life next to newspapers this past week has worked.  Just look at the two covers from yesterday, they complement each other beautifully.  Even yesterday, four days into the on-sale, this placement resulted in impulse purchases.  We are always checking magazine covers for tactical placement opportunities.