The June 2008 issue of the MacDonald monthly print product will be on its way to our subscribers throughout the world soon. Interested in getting a sneak peak of what's to come? Here are previews of a few stories that you may find of interest:
Inside Classified
The 62nd Annual SCAMA Conference. "The Society of Classified Advertising Managers of America held its 62nd annual conference in February 2008 in Dallas. The final three days of the conference were devoted to sales and marketing topics. You can read about the first two days' programming, devoted to call center topics, in the above-fold cover story of this month's issue of Inside Call Center."
Inside Online
From Co-Op to Carousel. "When trying to get a local group of restaurants in Dayton, Ohio, to advertise, Cox Ohio Publishing leaned on its interactive advertising experts. Steve Jones, one of the company's three online creative designers, created a carousel ad for the initiative that has since found many applications. Director of Online Advertising Jay King said the idea was born from a combination of existing flash technology and the classic newspaper co-op ad."
Inside Call Center
Targeting New Business and Churn Business. "Senior Director of Classified Advertising Mike McKiernan of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo., has spoken with his peers around North America about the frustrations they feel getting sales representatives to make appointments for special sales initiatives.
"'They have a tendency to go after the same customers for every effort. We all experience the difficulty of getting out to see new people. We would all like our reps to do more prospecting and soliciting new business, but the very nature of the newspaper business condones working the same group of people over and over again,' he said."
Inside Recruitment
Selling Smarter. "When trying to find candidates with personality for in-house openings, The Indianapolis (Ind.) Star leverages its own personality. According to Innovation and Development Project Manager Braden Nicholson, the newspaper's recruitment ads try to avoid issues of race, sex or age, so it was trying to find a way to attract the types of candidates it was looking for while staying within safe boundaries of recruitment advertising."
Inside Real Estate
Building Business for Builders. "OPUBCO Communications Group, which includes The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, Okla., has maintained a strong relationship with the Central Oklahoma Builders Association, including having one of its advertising executives sitting on the association's sales and marketing council.
"'At these council meetings, builders discussed different avenues they could explore to raise money for educational programs for the members. They weren't happy with results they were receiving with another magazine, so we offered our ideas to them,' said Real Estate Advertising Sales Manager Chris Carpenter."
Inside Automotive
Looking for Lincolns. "In some markets, the big holiday for automotive advertising is Memorial Day. In others, it's Fourth of July. In Boston, it's Presidents' Day, and The Boston (Mass.) Globe and boston.com have worked for the past several years to build its automotive advertising initiatives on that weekend each year.
"According to Tom Drislane, online sales manager for boston.com, the initiative began in 2005 with a dozen automotive dealers who wanted to advertise a new vehicle deal on Presidents' Day weekend. Three years later, the section has 15 dealers and over 100 classified ads associated with the weekly specials."
Creative Selling
The Cornerstones of Advertising by Russ Gillespie. "1. Audience is what your advertising buy is all about in any media. Your choices are to buy the most audience for the lowest cost per thousand (CPM) or to target your audience. Targeting your media buy to the demographic groups most likely to be your customers generally has a higher CPM.
"2. Content of the copy and art in any ad is the basis for good communication. Information should be concise but as complete as possible. The presentation should be well organized. Price and/or payments should be included."
Real Estate Marketer
Points to Ponder About Papers. "In her entrepreneur.com article 'Paper the Town,' Kim T. Gordon offers the following rules for people advertising in newspapers:
"1. Go where your target audience is. Gordon advises creating a two-sentence target audience profile that includes demographics and buying habits.
"'Ask the newspapers you're considering what percentage of their readers matches the demographics of your target audience,' Gordon says."
You'll find the continuations of all these stories plus several others in the June 2008 issue of the MacDonald print product. Look for it in your offices soon.
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