Retailing has come, basically, to getting people into the place where you merchandise or market your goods/services, and for that you need mass media. Whether you opt for Radio, Television, Newspaper, Magazine Direct-mail Telemarketing or the World-Wide Web. In order to create a selling environment, to get large numbers of purchasers into your store, you must employ Mass Media.
Of course, you could use any one of the above ﾖ in combination – to run a campaign of advertising, public relation/publicity or sales promotion. However, there is one way to cover them all. Yes, all, in one application… The newspaper Advertorial or supplement, as it is more commonly known.
The newspaper Advertorial; when properly designed, written and distributed, is the most powerful media campaign you can employ to market and sell any product, service or idea, in certain markets. And you can be assured, that The Bahamas is definitely one of the markets. (The exception could be its media sibling, a five to fifteen-minute piece produced for television, called an infomercial).
It is well known that in democratic and non-democratic societies alike, the people have become deeply attached to their newspaper(s) and (even in a verbal society like The Bahamas) we’ve come to rely ﾖ very passionately I might add – on our newspapers (as well as our radio and television stations) as sources for accurate and credible information.
For the most part, however, newspapers become stale, and seen as containing old news, the day after publication, which limits the impact of any particular news or feature article. But if the article appears again, in another edition… Or another publication, some, if not all, of the information is brought afresh to one’s mind and consciousness. Moreover, if the article, or collection of articles is formatted as a pullout section, there is even a greater chance of deepening exposure, retention and impact of, that information, or article(s). There is also that tendency to hold on to the Pullout as a library reference.
According to accepted industry statistics, the reader-to-copy ratio is around 3:4. That is to say, for an instance, almost three-and-a-half persons read a single circulated copy of each edition of The Nassau Guardian. The advertorial as a pullout section of one of the daily newspaper then can be a more powerful sales force than the average broadcast medium, simply because it has so much more “stay-ability” and by stay-ability we mean the ability to continue selling, days, even weeks after publication date.
As An advertising piece the advertorial will take a direct-sell approach; employing the right copy, fine graphics and a combination of both, to tickle the senses and make the right appeal to that of the prospective buyer… while, as a public relations function, the approach of the advertorial will be a bit less obtrusive in that its approach to selling will serve more as an instrument for educating the consumer on all of the virtues of the product or service being featured. Herein too, will be an opportunity to speak, in depth, of all of the principles, philosophy and practices, which go into the product/service, before it is presented to the buying public.
Circulated as a supplement to the dailies; Nassau Guardian, Tribune, Bahama Journal and one by-weekly, The Punch, here in Nassau, the edvertorial will subsequently get your sales message throughout The Bahamas, getting the smallest, even unknown firm, national coverage. If the ratio given above is accurate and you could realize a four percent net response in actual sales, think of the kind of a difference it could make at your cash register… You do the math.
Designed, written and circulated, strategically for your product or service, the editorial will make the kind of impact needed to move your product ﾖ in this market ﾖ in any direction you want it to go. It will also create for you and your company/firm, the kind of image you would enjoy having.
Never mind the talk of “Bahamians don’t read” While there is (generally speaking) some truth to this, you should pay more attention to the economic fact that more than 55,000 persons pay (out of their pockets) an average of .75 cents or $41,000, (Forty-one thousand dollars), every day, six days a week, to purchase copies of our three dailies and one bi-weekly newspapers. That, By-the-way, is roughly Twelve Million Dollars ($12,000,000), per year.
The advertorial produced for your product or service must be designed to:
(a) Make a declaration by your company/firm that its endeavour to deliver ﾖ on a timely, efficient bases ﾖ the, highest quality product/service available in this particular market ﾖ backed by a reputation for excellent service to the people of The Bahamas, is predicated by the confidence it has in the ability and integrity of the people who comprise its human resources, featured in the advertorial.
(b) Broaden the base and heighten the awareness of it’s presence and activities as an active corporate citizen ﾖ in good standing — in The Bahamas, through the products/services it provides to the widest possible cross section of persons in the Bahamian society.
(c) As unobtrusively as possible; lure, inspire, cajole, encourage… All who read the advertorial to respond out of inspiration, empathy, goodwill, etc., which the articles, photographs and other graphic niceties will evoke; by walking into your store; making a purchase and, generally, patronising your company/firm, in support of the persons featured in the advertorial.
To accomplish this, your advertising or public relations agency, will need to organize a team, which will pull together the following:
EMPLOYEE PROFILES: Particularly on those employees identified as having a story to tell or about whom a story needs to be told.
STORE MANAGERS: Will play a valuable role in assisting with identifying employees who have been recognised for outstanding performances or any major contribution to your company/firm, your organisation, in general or their job task, in particular.
THE BIG PICTURE: Comes into view when interview(s) with the principal(s), are done, not necessarily for the purpose of featuring ‘Top Brass’ in the advertorial but to capture your corporate vision for the firm, as well as its heart and soul… Your joint and separate passions for what you do as providers of your particular product or service.
COST STUDY: This should be done very carefully to avoid improper budgeting and ensure cost efficiency. The costs for preparation, production and distribution of the advertorial, circulated by way of the daily newspapers as suggested above, is extremely wide ranging, depending on:
(a) The amount of money you want to spend on presentation; such as graphic arts and the kind and quality of paper you elect to use.
(b) Whether you elect to use one or two of the newspapers in Nassau for distribution, instead of all of them.
(c) Will you have each newspaper print their insertion batch or have the entire batch printed by one of the papers and deliver copies to the others for distribution only.
(d) enough for newspaper circulation?
(e) Will you go the smart route and use a professional to coordinate
Your Advertorial or do it yourself, taking the (costly) risk fumbling?
A circulation of 77,700 copies will have a projected market reach of approximately 287,490, according to accepted industry ratios (mentioned earlier) of a single copy being read by three to four (3.48) persons.
The newspaper Advertorial, we believe, can be a very powerful, far-reaching, cost-efficient and time-efficient approach to marketing and selling a firm’s product/service, be it a large or small firm, and as for editorial coverage, only a press conference, called by the prime minister; to declare travel to Miami off-limits Bahamians under age 50 years, will beat it.
David A. Clarke
