Local Press Makes the Difference
March 18 2003
Results from a £250,000 Conversion Study conducted by Millward Brown UK for the Newspaper Society demonstrate that local press advertising plays a vital role in pushing consumers along the buying process towards purchase. The study represents the largest piece of independent advertising effectiveness research ever undertaken by the UK regional press. It tracked multimedia advertising campaigns for 26 brands in four regions of the UK, and involved over 9,000 face-to-face interviewers.
The Conversion Study is a major undertaking by the UK regional and local press, underlining the medium's growing importance in the media market, and positioning the medium as a crucial element in the mix.
The local press is the conversion medium. Evidence throughout this report proves that local newspapers have a specific, unique and powerful position in converting consumers along the buying process towards purchase:
- Research suggests that local press readers who are 'in the market' to make a purchase, actively seek information in the local press and are at the same time more alert to advertising messages.
- Advertising in local press delivers high levels of awareness and awareness growth. The medium effectively delivers the message to its mass audience.
- Importantly, as well as message delivery, the local press ads on the study can be shown to have the desired effect on consumers, significantly increasing brand health measures such as familiarity and consideration, which ultimately drive consumers towards purchase.
- The most successful individual ads employ structures which exploit the local press reader relationship and share a number of elements in common, including: necessary purchase, directional and product information, clear headlines and propositions, colour and product images.
New findings from the Conversion Study show:
- 'In the market' consumers have a greater average uplift in local press awareness than all adults
- New advertisers to the medium, branded and frequently-purchased goods, advertisers with low existing levels of awareness and/or advertisers seeking a rapid burst of awareness growth, should employ a high use of colour and a higher frequency of insertions
- Established, heavier spending advertisers (typically high street retailers) who use local press as a core part of their schedule and aim to sustain and grow advertising awareness, should maintain a consistent presence over a sustained period of time
- However, in all cases, increasing the use of colour, volume, frequency and extending campaign duration had a positive impact upon effectiveness
- Using colour more than doubles the growth in awareness of local press ads.
- Awareness of local press campaigns with more than two insertions weekly grew at twice the rate of those advertising at most once a fortnight.
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
