|
Advertising Director's Report
Given the challenges that
we faced both internally and externally, I think the first three quarters of
2012 can be fairly summed up as ‘respectable.’
We’ve seen positives on a number of fronts including the launch of our new website, a very successful
agency reception in Toronto as well as activity from a number of clients that
have been dormant for many years. Simply
judging by the nature of interaction with media planners and buyers it’s clear
that AdWest’s strategy of aligning our products and services with the current
needs of our clients is the right one.
Our ability to be unique in a landscape with a growing number of options
should ultimately preserve our value to advertisers, at least in the short
term.
What's Been Accomplished?
Site Launch
 I’m extremely pleased with
how our web presence has evolved over the last couple of years, culminating
with the complete overhaul and launch of AdWest.ca 2.0. Our site traffic reports confirm a number of
things that are vitally important to helping us determine our future courses of
action and clearly a focus on targeting tools and applications remain front and
center. The new website expands on our
capabilities in this area with the deployment of our new iMapper. Driven by our existing GIS technology and DB,
the iMapper gives users the ability to plot a target geography -in the form of
an address, postal code, FSA, town, landmark etc.- and then introduce viable
newspaper options that meet specific planning criteria. It’s a revolutionary tool that can be used by
ad buyers and marketers at any level to facilitate community newspaper
campaigns.
Achieving a broader overall community newspaper
‘marketing’ focus was another priority for the new site. Rather than simply being a warehouse of tools
and information we wanted to leverage existing site visits and expose those
users to a strong community newspaper message and we feel we’ve accomplished
that.
Client Activity
Monsanto, Napa AutoPro
stores, Arysta Lifesciences, Syngenta, BMO, Loblaws, Telus Mobility, Koodoo
Mobile, Canada BrokerLink and the AB Libraries Association are just a sampling
of some the new or dormant accounts we’ve been active with over the past few
months. In each case, our assistance in
the planning stages of the process has helped to facilitate bookings at the
regional end.
We’ve also been very
involved with the partner regions on a number of projects with a strictly
provincial focus. Elections Manitoba, SK
Ministry of Agriculture, AB Rural Electrification Areas, AB Libraries, Manitoba
Rural Municipalities, AB Rural Municipalities, Enmax Energy and ATB Financial
are some of those examples.
In all cases we have been
required to provide the agency with a recommendation of titles that is based on geo-spatial analysis of relationships between target and the
newspapers coverage area.
Toronto Agency Reception
In early October and in
conjunction with the launch of our new website, we held our fourth Advertising
Agency Reception and third in Toronto.
It was arguably our most successful agency event ever with over 100
guests representing dozens of Toronto agencies.
It is clear that when done right, events like these are extremely worthwhile
and build a lot of cachet within the industry.
I was surprised to hear from one of attendees, Julius Freiclich, the
Account Director for GM/Carat Canada, that the Globe and Mail makes a point of
holding 5 such events annually.
We were pleased that one of
our board members, Murray Elliott was able to join us for the evening. You can view some of the pictures of the 2012
Toronto agency reception in the Events Gallery section of our website.
Acquiring New Research
Ipsos approached us early
in the fall to gauge our interest in resurrecting their semi-annual Agriculture
Communications Review. The study measures the consumption of various types of media (including community newspapers)
within the agricultural community. It
was abandoned in 2009 and was at the time, a staple in our collection of
research. At just under $10,000 the
study is not cheap, but at the same time it is a unique piece of research in
that it ties media consumption directly to farmers. These insights can prove to be extremely
valuable to agencies working on clients in the ag sector. We look forward to incorporating the results
of the study into our marketing efforts in early 2013.
Moving Forward
Over the next couple of weeks, AdWest will be embarking on
the massive task of updating the core information that drives our various
applications, tools, web resources and advertising opportunities.
- Within the next week we will be reviewing all 280 newspaper
circulation footprints to ensure that they reflect the data contained in the
most recent CMAC audit statements.
- Updated StatsCan Census/Ag Data and 2012 Consumer Spending
projections have been purchased. The
data is currently being modeled and we’re planning for it to be incorporated
into our GIS infrastructure by the end of this year. The online Market Analyzer application
already includes the 2012 CSP data.
- 2013 Rate and Specs data is currently being gathered from
the associations and will be integrated into the database within the next two
weeks.
Please Let Us Help You
With many of our tools and resources being marketed as
‘Advertising Opportunities' OnDemand and updated in RealTime it’s critically
important that you help us keep our Special Supplement, Regular Feature and
Special Products information current for your publication. Now would be the perfect time to review the
information that’s appearing on our site under Planning Essentials
and make changes as required. This can be done either by accessing the DB Update Portal directly, or emailing your updates to: updates@adwest.ca (For instructions on how to use the Update Portal, click here)
Pew Research Study: How people get local news and information in different types of communities
We came across an interesting U.S. study recently that
breaks down consumers of news according to the type of community in which  they
reside: Urban/Big City, Suburbs, Small City/Town, Rural.
The results confirm that there’s a direct connection between
lifestyle/pace and preferred methods of news and information consumption. In other words, it’s far more likely that the
urban city dweller is receptive to receiving news via online and mobile vehicles
than people living in small towns and rural areas. Most importantly however, the study actually
attaches some quantifiable metrics to what we’ve always believed but have
struggled to articulate with data. While
granted the study was conducted in the U.S. using U.S. definitions for the
various geographies, we feel that there’s enough of a correlation to be able to
apply these findings to our markets.
You can read my post on the subject as well as access the
full results of the study by checking out the AdWest Blog.
New Initiatives for 2013
AdWest is exploring the development and launch of a couple
new initiatives in 2013 including one that would see the launch of an online
co-op advertising planning application designed to help large companies
facilitate use of available co-op advertising dollars in member markets. We’ll have more to report on this initiative
early in the New Year.
|
|
AdWest on LinkedIn and Twitter
Have a LinkedIn or Twitter account? Be sure to follow us for AdWest updates, blog posts and current industry news.
Follow @adwestmarketing on Twitter
Find AdWest on LinkedIn
Submit
Important Links
AdWest Website
Database Entry Portal
Database Portal Instructions
AdWest User Guide
AdWest Blog/Updates
LinkedIn
Twitter
Contact Us
AdWest Marketing Inc
3228 Parsons Road
Edmonton, AB T6N 1M2
Local: 780.989.4901
Toll Free: 1.877.701.4704
Fax: 780.989.2142
info@adwest.ca
Advertising Director
Jeff Beardsworth
780.989.4901
jeff@adwest.ca
Toronto Brand Manager
Crystal MacLaren
647.261.0018
crystal@adwest.ca
Marketing Coordinator
Chelsea Donaldson
780.989.4907
chelsea@adwest.ca
|
