Inserts - the undervalued medium

Publishers wear two hats. They can be both buyers and sellers in the insert world.

For the most part, however, they only want to sell, and are therefore missing out on a great opportunity for cost-effective subscription acquisitions, which may yield 5-10 times the response achieved by a space ad.

When I was circulation director for National Geographic in the UK, inserts were a favourite channel – second only to direct mail in terms of response and cost per order. Second only to direct mail in terms of production costs too, but with economies of scale on print (using the same print for other channels too, like take–ones, for instance) and buying a mixture of distress space and booked space, the results are good enough to include inserts on a circulation marketer’s media schedule.

Subscription marketers seem to be happy enough to put inserts in title or in other titles within the publishing group, but there it often ends, either because of lack of imagination or lack of budget. Inserts within title work, especially if a title has a huge newsstand sale, but they do decline in effectiveness if over-used. That’s when inserts outside of a publisher’s stable of titles should be strongly considered. I know they cost money and some other media do not (especially when subscription marketers get a free ride in their own publications) but if magazines are serious in their wish to win circulation, and in their desire to feed their customer databases for commercial gain, inserts are a real opportunity.

Inserts are fabulous too for testing; a new piece of creative against a control; a change of size to see if an 8-pager can give better cost-effectiveness than a 4-pager; a price test in non-subscription copies – or any other variable, where volume response is required in order to be statistically valid.

The inserts market

So, what are inserts all about? Some 23.32 billion items were inserted in magazines in 2004, and the numbers were still growing in 2005. £1.17 billion pounds was spent, if you take the average cost of £25 per thousand each for media and print.

The largest growth in inserts was seen in the supplements, which saw a 42% increase in quarter 3, 2005 over the same quarter the previous year. In that same quarter, the medium saw a 17% increase overall.

The most commonly used insert is an A5 single sheet or an A5 4-pager. That’s mostly because it will come in at under 10 grams, and inserts are often charged by weight. That doesn’t mean that a 32-page catalogue can’t achieve an average order value that still works. When Pricing in Proportion finally arrives in August, however, heavyweight items may be penalised by publishers trying to balance the postal books between size and weight, but I’m confident enough in the value of inserts to think that even PIP may not make inserts uneconomic in comparison to other channels.

The road to success in the insert market is in the targeting and then in the testing.

Background research is the key - including talking to specialist media agencies who know how a magazine responds best and for which products. Start with a Target Group Index (see www.tgisurveys.com) run based on the topic of the title to establish media consumption patterns for people with an interest in the chosen area. A TGI run will provide an indexed list of titles that appeal to the specific audience.

But don’t leave it at that. After you have launched some tests in the insert market, and have some insights of your own, widen the universe by looking at titles outside of the topic area. I must admit to placing National Geographic inserts into some less than obvious titles, and still getting a decent response time and time again.

National and regional press are worth a look too – the quantities tend to be large, but regional tests can provide an appropriate audience without breaking the bank, particularly if you can react quickly on distress space. And, you can test regionally, cutting out regions that don’t match your demographic plans, and focussing on those that do. It is now possible to target inserts by town, for some of the larger national press.

Using distress space effectively

I would recommend considering advance printing of inserts in blocks of 25,000 or so, coding each batch and negotiating with the printer to keep them on the shelves until you need them. Then, a simple phone call when you are offered space at the last minute can get your inserts delivered fast.

Not that I would rely totally on distress space. Banker titles can be pre-booked to cover a percentage of your budgeted volume, and leave you to consider additional opportunities without feeling that you are playing Russian roulette with your targets.

Competition and how to get around it

‘But’, I hear you say, ‘what about competition?’ Well, yes it is true. If you are the number 2 title in a sector, it is unlikely that the number 1 title will take your inserts. But, beyond that, there are so many insert opportunities, that you can put the competition to one side and still have plenty to choose from. For example, think about:

* Customer magazines: a fast growing medium where the insert opportunities are endless.
* Partnerships: if you don’t mind your magazine being used as a premium for another product, then go out and negotiate, or, better still, have your media agency do it for you – they know where all the skeletons are buried. Partnerships, with like-minded brands, extend opportunities in directions that currently you may not be able to reach.
* Inserts in product dispatch: maybe a book club or a charity merchandise fulfilment package might give you some effective opportunities.
* Bartering: set up your own rate card – 1,000 inserts in their magazine in exchange for x number of page impressions in yours and so on.

Using inserts to change demographics

Since responses using inserts will give you volume, inserts can be used to reposition your demographics and make your own magazine a more attractive buy for advertisers. For instance, you might want to lower the average subscriber reading age of your magazine by placing inserts in titles that are read by slightly younger people than your own audience. Obviously, changing any demographic is not achieved overnight, but, if it is a core objective for your title, then it’s worth a try, so long as you can still achieve the appropriate CPO.

Leverage

If there is one thing about inserts – they get noticed. Critics may say that they are easily disposed of, but in real life, in real volumes, this effect is manageable. Remember, you are only looking for a few orders per thousand to make a good business return. (I would try and use recycled and recyclable paper to ensure that your strategy also works for the environment as a whole).

Test condensing subscription marketing activity for a title into a big burst within a selected region. If your brand is recognisable and the recall of your offer is good, then do some press advertising, or door to door, or direct mail, or all of the above, alongside your insert campaigns. You will often see an increase in responses over and above what you might expect. A recent test for a magazine – which shall remain anonymous – saw a 9% increase in response and a 33% reduction in the CPO for a recognisable insert campaign running alongside other media.

Coupons

In this electronic world, it is all too tempting to leave off the coupon and quote only a website or a telephone number. It is worth remembering who your audience is before you leave off a coupon. The web and the phone will work for an audience that doesn’t mind using a credit card, but if the product is for an older audience, then using a coupon may increase response, as these folks may prefer to reply by post and send a cheque. If you have a coupon, then you might want to add an envelope, perfed into your insert, and the uplift in response will pay for the extra production cost.

What’s ahead? The changing face of the marketplace

Consumers are becoming smarter and more demanding. They are more likely to register their opinions on media channels by using their feet. The volume of registrations on the TPS proves the point. In a 2004 DMA/Future Foundation research paper, telemarketing was found by the respondents to be almost five times more intrusive than inserts, and, I suspect, that this ratio will have increased dramatically when the research is repeated, considering that there are now almost 12 million names on the TPS. For the record, Text, email, door-to-door, direct mail and ‘chugging’ were all considered to be more intrusive than inserts.

So, how do we make an insert more appealing?

1. It has to be attention grabbing and engaging.
If the insert is just a toilet-tissue-thin A5 sheet of paper with ink on, then it is going to struggle to persuade the reader to act. Research shows that larger inserts are more likely to be kept.
2. It has to be explicit and clear.
There is a window of just seconds to get the reader to understand what you are offering.
3. It has to be recognisable as a brand the reader can trust.
We need to use every trick in the book to reaffirm the brand values, using brand image and an insert that reflects the quality of the brand.
4. It has to deliver second-generation trust.
Select media that are in tune with your product. If the readers trust the medium in which they find your insert, they are more likely to take notice.

So, why not a buyer and a seller be? In the world of inserts it’s certainly worth a try.