NAB hosts newspaper insert gurus

NAB recently brought Manny Palomo and his team from the Best Buy Group in the US, who consistently produce and distribute about 60 million inserts per week, to share their knowledge and experience with local marketers and advertisers.

This highly successful retailer's current communication budget is apportioned as follows:

TV - 38%
Inserts - 36%
Direct Marketing - 26%
Magazine - 26%
Radio - 26%
Internet - 26%

According to US media research, inserts are an extremely popular source of information and are read by an average of three people per home.

Manny believes that inserts work well because they help consumers understand what is available, what's new, what's on sale, as well as build brand salience and help cut through the clutter if appropriately designed.

The Newspaper Association of America, representing 2000 newspapers, conducted a survey indicating consumers' top 10 reasons for reading inserts, which include: to keep up with trends; to make a wish list; to shop for the things they forgot to buy; to find out about new products; browse; plan; and because they're easy to read. 12% of people surveyed buy a newspaper as much for the advertising as for the editorial content and 51% look forward to inserts more than any other form of advertising.

The top three reasons consumers look forward to these are: to shop comparatively; check out a new store; and look for something specific.

"Similar readerships trends and reliance on inserts for making shopping decisions are evident from research done on SA's community newspapers and although I'm mindful that local is lekker, there is a lot we can take from these American findings and adapt appropriately to our local market and conditions," adds McIntyre.