Ten million readers wipe the smirks away

The following letter was issued in response to this article in Media Week on November 27.

Dear Sir, It’s good that the importance of postcode level ad-buying is being recognised in the launch of Locally Connected (UK’s first print and online planning tool set to launch, 27 October, page 5). However, I would question the claim that the tool covers 70% of the local media market. I suspect that the titles missing from the currency are those that are routinely neglected by the less savvy brands.

In order to truly advertise at postcode level, a campaign has to take account of the hyper local media, which ranges from tier-two lifestyle titles to village magazines. I’ve made this claim before, often in front of large crowds, and it’s occasionally met with a snigger from old fashioned media buyers for whom circulation is king. When I tell them that the hyper local media network covers 10,000 accessible titles with a combined circulation of over ten million, the smirk fades away very quickly indeed.

In order to keep up with the most sophisticated narrowcast targeting techniques, it’s essential that national brands bring hyper local media buying into the portfolio. This has been recognised for some time in the states, where the fragmented media environment means that the method that works best is the right method. Now that our own media landscape is suffering, it’s time that UK Plc caught up with our cousins across the water.

Best regards,

Jason Mawer
Managing director
Oxbury Media Ltd
East Barn
Fairclough Hall Farm
Weston
Hertfordshire
SG4 7DP

The bell tolls for the regional media

Local and regional papers have been getting some bad press lately. If you believe what the marketing media tells you, ad spends are down, journalist numbers are falling and circulations are at rock bottom. So is there a light at the end of the tunnel for the great British institution that is the local paper? Jason Mawer, managing director of hyper-local agency Oxbury Media, thinks the answer is no – unless they can get back to their roots.

I have one serious issue with the modern regional or local newspaper – it’s not really that local at all. Most of them simply regurgitate national content, occasionally with a local angle tacked on at the end. As a result, advertisers have lost faith that the readers are really reading; particularly on free circulation titles. This creates a vicious circle; less advertising money means less profit, which means fewer journalists and more stories that are produced cheaply using borrowed sources.

Even as this is happening in the local and regional media, there is also a cash crisis occurring across all media formats. As a result, advertising in the nationals becomes cheaper and those Google AdWords start looking like great value.

However, very few local and regional paper have cashed in on the boom in online advertising spend. This is because they have the same problem online – there is very little exclusive content on their Web sites and, as a result, very little reason to spend your valuable online minutes visiting them.

The bottom line is that the local media isn’t sufficiently narrowcast. People are turning to other media sources, both online and offline, to find out what they want to know about their areas. If the local newspaper doesn’t carry sports results for the pub football league, information from local councillors and local coroner’s news, there is bound to be a Blog, village magazine or web site somewhere that does. If you want to find out what’s going on at your local pub, the local paper may well not tell you. UseYourLocal.com will though, as will the pub’s Facebook page in all likelihood.

This ultra local sourcing of information is reinforced by the hyper local newshounds who have decided to generate their own content, for their immediate area. "No-one was doing online news on a daily basis for my area at all," said Ross Hawkes, the creator of The Lichfield Blog. "One local paper closed and the other updates only once a week when it is out."

There have been a number of initiatives recently intended to address problems in regional news reporting, by taking advantage of the upsurge in amateur hyper local journalists. The Guardian is launching a service which plans to use local Bloggers to report back on important events in the area. It plans to help cover community news, and report on local developments. The project will emphasise local political decision-making, and is scheduled to go live next year.

However, the drawback is that Bloggers aren’t trained journalists. They lack the credibility of a trained hack and they may not offer the whole story. That said I’m in favour of anything that provides the genuine news content that’s missing at present.

The Press Association has also launched an initiative, initially planned as a trial project in Merseyside, which will ultimately result in a dedicated portal from which any news outlet can source material free of charge. Again, this is a brilliant plan, but I wonder if it isn’t simply trying to harness the power of something that already exists below the radar of the London based media circuit?

There is another level of locality, as The Lichfield Blog and countless others like it prove. There is the hyper local media, the tier two lifestyle magazines, village magazines and myriad organically created online and offline news outlets, set up by the people for the people. The mainstream media know about this and that’s why they are putting money into supporting hyper local content. Everyone from the BBC to Trinity Mirror Publishing have plans afoot to make their content more specific to the user; more narrowcast.

It’s my belief that this media is the answer. We should invest in the hyper local space and make it bigger, helping create more independent local media channels, which may be under one roof or several. Crucially though, these outlets will provide the information you really want to know about your area, your postcode or even your street.

Ironically, the hyper local press presents a huge opportunity to the national brands that have shied away from advertising in the local and regional media. Those businesses who genuinely want to communicate with their customers at post-code level now have a way of doing so. The key is to keep that communication genuine. Oxbury Media brokers advertising between its clients and a network of 10,000 titles with a reach of over ten million readers. When a client specifies that they want to reach a particular postcode or set of postcodes, we suggest that they ensure that their message is genuinely local. If you are a supermarket, the message shouldn’t be from your brand, but from the outlet on the local high street.

We’ve seen businesses doing this with vouchers and discount coupons recently and others advertising only those services available within a ten minute drive. For the Co-Op, we created a report, showing which services were offered at each of their locations and how they could match those services up with specific advertising in hyper local media. It makes absolute sense for a brand that owns everything from food outlets to funeral packages to not advertise a service in an area where it isn’t offered. Similarly, we’ve seen national chemists advertising rapeseed allergies only in the areas where rapeseed is grown. By keeping it local their advertising reinforces the editorial message of the magazine, rather than undermining it. And, crucially, it gets results, which means the advertiser retains faith in the reader.

Hyper local advertising is also very effective for franchise businesses, where the individual franchisee buys only the postcodes they cover. No other media allows this level of targeting. Even if you advertise in the Yellow Pages, you are inevitably doing so on behalf of the next franchise along, geographically speaking, as well as yourself. Hyper local media means that every penny is spent on reaching your own potential customers.

As you can see, I’m a passionate advocate of the hyper local media outlet. A visit to my office tells you this; there are hundreds of titles stacked around the room, rubbing shoulders with national newspapers and marketing titles. So where does this leave the local and regional press in terms of survival?

The bottom line is that I don’t think it needs to survive. The emergence of the hyper local media means it’s not as important as it used to be. I would like it to survive and prosper. I would like it to get back its local focus and bring back the advertisers. But I don’t feel entirely confident that it will. It’s a great British institution, but it’s an endangered one that needs to up its game.

Ends: 1199 words

Electronic copy: Get an electronic copy of this release by mail richards@stonejunction.co.uk or download from www.oxbury-pr.blogspot.com. If you want to stay constantly up to date on the latest news from Oxbury Media, paste the following link into your RSS reader, http://oxbury-pr.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If you don’t have an RSS reader, I can recommend the following free package www.sharpreader.net.

For further information contact: Jason Mawer,
Oxbury Media Ltd, East Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Weston, Hertfordshire
Telephone: +44 (0) 1462 790517
e-mail: Jason@oxburymedia.co.uk
www: www.oxburymedia.co.uk/

Press enquiries: Richard Stone
Stone Junction, 33 Kirkdale, Sydenham, London, SE26 4PN
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8699 7743
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8699 7743
e-mail: richards@stonejunction.co.uk
www: www.stonejunction.co.uk

Ref: OXB008/11/09

The closest thing to word of mouth - a how-to guide to hyper local coupon and voucher campaigns

Coupons and voucher campaigns have, for too long, been the elephant in the room at the marketing party. Early advertising gurus were staunch advocates, with David Ogilvy even making couponing one of the advertising ‘commandments’ in his seminal Confessions of an Advertising Man. Despite this, modern ad agencies have lost their way in the medium, leaving vouchers to the direct mail specialists. Here Jason Mawer, MD of hyper-local agency Oxbury Media, explains why vouchers are alive and well and how a network of outlets the company has created means that they are now more effective than ever before.

Oxbury Media provides advertisers access to a unique network hyper local media outlets. At present we are seeing a huge trend towards accessing this network as part of strategic voucher campaigns, mostly by national brands. These campaigns tend to be based around timely events, such as Christmas, Halloween, and bonfire night as well as stock sales and product testing. The other key reason for running voucher campaigns for high street retailers is to improve footfall at new stores.

However, there is a crucial point to be made here. We aren’t encouraging these brands to add to the mountain of recycling currently generated by households across the UK. The couponing campaigns we are advocating run in hyper-local media channels, including local magazines, village and parish magazines and local newsletters. There’s no litter on the floor with these campaigns, because these titles are actually read by people with an interest in their local communities.

But how big is that hyper-local audience? The existing Oxbury Media network of 10,000 titles has a reach of over ten million readers, so this is unquestionably not small beer. In fact, that’s over three times more readers than The Sun has every day. Clearly, this isn’t a like for like comparison, but it does illustrate that this is a huge market which has gone untapped by national advertisers for years.

What is hyper local media?
Hyper local media is a marketing channel – it’s a way of affordably reaching a postcode using the publications produced just for readers in that postcode and the immediate surrounding area. It’s a way of talking to communities by starting at the bottom and working upwards. From a couponing point of view, this allows the advertising buyer to run different product based campaigns in different areas.

It’s about being able to communicate at the correct level. By placing advertising in a hyper local title, you are contextualising your message with genuine editorial, genuinely chosen because of its relevance to a particular geographical area. We believe that this hugely reduces the throw away factor.

One only has to look at the work Boots is doing integrating its ‘Your Local Boots Pharmacies’ into its network of outlets to see the importance of hyper local marketing. Equally, the initiatives currently underway at The Press Association and The Guardian, introducing networks of reporters to boost local and regional papers whose revenues have slumped, illustrates the perceived importance of local news.

How is it done?
The first step is to decide on the areas that your brand needs to target. This can be done using customer data gathered via loyalty programmes, by strategic plan (if you are supporting new retail outlets for instance) or based on a geo specific product range or marketing plan.

Once that has been achieved, Oxbury Media can match publications from its network to the postcodes and geographical catchment area you plan to target. The coupons are then uploaded in the form of an advert to an easy to use dashboard from which the relevant local magazines can download them and place them into the page. In exchange, they upload a copy of the complete magazine so that the advertiser can be provided with an electronic voucher copy. They also receive a report, showing the titles that have run the advert, their locations and circulations and basic physical data such as format. Some of the titles even use a desktop publishing system provided by Oxbury Media, which further simplifies this process.

Costs are managed by either setting a capital cost or a budget and a geographical area combined with a cost per thousand rate you are willing to pay, based on the magazine’s circulation. The latter option is analogous to the pay per click model used in Google AdWords and similar online advertising models.

There is simply no other way of reaching this level of local media. Advertising and PR agencies do not have databases of these media outlets – because they would be much too costly to maintain. Media analysis and monitoring companies, like Cision, Gorkhana and Vocus don’t have listings of these kinds of titles for similar reasons. And even if they did, would you really want to be the one ringing hundreds of hyper local magazines to get media prices?

Integrating hyper local media into the marketing mix
Despite being unique, this method of targeting the hyper local media doesn’t stand alone. Like all kinds of marketing it can offer support to, and receive it from, other elements of the marketing mix.

Being seen to be investing in community projects can be a beneficial way of genuinely integrating a national brand into a local area, as can investing in new local businesses. For instance Oxbury Media, which also owns UKVillages.co.uk, recently launched a Save the British Fete campaign, which was backed by Boris Johnson, Dame Vera Lynne and the cast of Coronation Street.

As well as these kinds of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives, couponing at hyper local level can be made to fit with other media - by intelligently combining its messaging with that of national, regional or trade advertising and PR or by complimenting it with direct e-mail, pay per click or social media advertising.

Ultimately, the introduction of the hyper local media concept has made coupon and voucher advertising a real and valid medium again. In fact, they are now the closest thing to word of mouth available. If David Ogilvy were writing his confessions today, I’m certain vouchers and coupons would once more be one of his commandments. This is something which couldn’t have been said during the dark years of poorly targeted placements and pages of coupons building up in recycling bins.

Ends: 1066 words

Electronic copy: Get an electronic copy of this release by mail richards@stonejunction.co.uk or download from www.oxbury-pr.blogspot.com. If you want to stay constantly up to date on the latest news from Oxbury Media, paste the following link into your RSS reader, http://oxbury-pr.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If you don’t have an RSS reader, I can recommend the following free package www.sharpreader.net.

For further information contact: Jason Mawer,
Oxbury Media Ltd, East Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Weston, Hertfordshire
Telephone: +44 (0) 1462 790517
e-mail: Jason@oxburymedia.co.uk
www: http://www.oxburymedia.co.uk/

Press enquiries: Richard Stone
Stone Junction, 33 Kirkdale, Sydenham, London, SE26 4PN
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8699 7743
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8699 7743
e-mail: richards@stonejunction.co.uk
www: http://www.stonejunction.co.uk/

Ref: OXB001/10/09

Oxbury Media endorses Press Association move

~ Hyper local business offers network of reporters ~

Hyper-local agency Oxbury Media has welcomed news that the Press Association is likely to secure charitable funding for it’s ‘public service reporting’ initiative. Furthermore, the company has announced its intention to complement the move by making the content from its own network of local journalists available to regional and national newspapers.

Initially planned as a trial project in Merseyside, the Press Association’s proposal will ultimately result in a dedicated portal from which any news outlet can source material free of charge. The project is intended to help mitigate for the tide of closures and budget cuts in local media. These have resulted in essential reporting of local council activity, court activity and inquests being dropped.

Oxbury Media already provides written copy and, crucially, advertising to a network of 10,000 hyper local publications that download news stories and ad copy from its web site. The new proposal is to reverse the valve, allowing national and regional newspapers to find content from hyper local sources and re-publish it or use it as source material. Oxbury Media has already held talks with The Trinity Mirror Group and News International who are both believed to be interested in the concept and now hopes to meet The Press Association to further discuss its plans.

Under the existing Oxbury Media model, advertisers set a budget to book space in the network of publications and the person managing the title itself downloads the adverts he or she wants to run. Businesses using the scheme range from national organisations such as Age Concern, Saga and Co-Op to small businesses and franchise operations.

“The bottom line for national brands attempting to reach local audiences is the health of the media they are using. Ultimately, this means advertising in that media,” explained an upbeat Jason Mawer, managing director of Oxbury Media. “Without advertising, there can’t be ink on paper. Journalism costs money, printing costs money, distribution costs money and all of this is funded by advertising spend.

“The last couple of years have seen vital local press suffer because ad budgets have been cut and spend has been relocated online. Part of what we do at Oxbury is about ensuring that hyper-local press has access to the kind of advertising it needs to survive. I can see this model of media buying being extended to cover other kinds of publications, including local and regional press. At the moment though, the key is to go one step beneath local media. Like local and regional papers, these small magazines die without advertising. However, national brands are beginning to see the potential and are beginning to support them and receive the benefits,” concluded Mawer.

Oxbury Media also owns UKVillages.co.uk, which recently launched the Save the British Fete campaign, backed by Boris Johnson, Dame Vera Lynne and the cast of Coronation Street.

Ends: 425 words

Electronic copy: Get an electronic copy of this release by mail richards@stonejunction.co.uk or download from www.oxbury-pr.blogspot.com. If you want to stay constantly up to date on the latest news from Oxbury Media, paste the following link into your RSS reader, http://oxbury-pr.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If you don’t have an RSS reader, I can recommend the following free package www.sharpreader.net.

For further information contact: Jason Mawer,
Oxbury Media Ltd, East Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Weston, Hertfordshire
Telephone: +44 (0) 1462 790517
e-mail: Jason@oxburymedia.co.uk
www: www.oxburymedia.co.uk/

Press enquiries: Richard Stone
Stone Junction, 33 Kirkdale, Sydenham, London, SE26 4PN
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8699 7743
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8699 7743
e-mail: richards@stonejunction.co.uk
www: www.stonejunction.co.uk

Ref: OXB001/09/09

Contact Oxbury Media

Get in touch: If you are a journalist with a question about Oxbury Media, e-mail richards@stonejunction.co.uk. If you are a prospective client, trying to contact Oxbury Media about our services, use any of the methods below to reach Jason Mawer, the managing director.

Address: Oxbury Media Ltd, East Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP

Tel: +44 (0) 800 0887282

e-mail: Jason@oxburymedia.co.uk

Nearest railway: Railway: Baldock (3.82mi, 6.14km)

To subscribe to updates from this Blog, just fill out the following form:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner