WMC 2011: What Advertisers want from Magazine Media?

An integrated approach is required then a multimedia approach

Neha Saraiya | Delhi | October 13, 2011

The final day of the 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress began on a session, “What Advertisers want from Magazine Media'. There were three speakers sharing their perspective on how advertisers expect magazine publishers to cope with them in the changing times.

First came in Philip Thomas, CEO, Cannes Lions, UK who gave a 'Helicopter view', by moving out from the magazines and adopting a holistic view at the same time. He said, “One thing that has happened at the Cannes festival over the last few years is not only the advertisers had come in large numbers, but now even the marketers are also coming.”

He pointed out that last year 20% of the delegates at Cannes represented the client side. “For me, as a client I come to see and celebrate excellent work,” he elaborated.

Thomas bought another interesting point in to perceptive as he stated, “Great creative ideas build business and touch people lives.” He supported the aforementioned by a trend as how the winner of the 'advertiser of the year' at Cannes has enjoyed a high share price in that particular period. Be it Volkswagen in 2009, P &G in 2008 or Honda in 2007.

Clients are very interested in creative outputs.

The  'Three speed media', is a category of three types of participation at Cannes divided into 'Thoroughly engaged' like Nokia, Yahoo, & facebook; 'Starting to be engaged' like Comcast & Disney; and 'Not there at all' like Time Inc, Bonnier.

He also shared the example of Dominoes Pizza in Japan where the advertisers developed a new market of outdoor for pizza consumption by creating world's first GPS delivery service. As a result , the pizza giant experienced over $4 million sales in one year.

He then quoted Paul Polmon, CEO, Unilever, 'Retailers have become media companies and they know their audience better then we do.'

Then he spun off the question to 'What magazine segment can grab from the new markets' instead of 'What do advertisers expect from magazine markets'.

Vikram Sakhuja, CEO Group M, South Asia raised his concerns about the reducing share of print as a medium with an increasing emphasis on other mediums.

He proposed two solutions to the grin situations a) The Number behind magazines b) Integrated planning.

Media owners are very upbeat about title numbers as there is a mindset that magazines have a tiny reach. He stated, “Content of the magazine is the heart of it and the medium being it tablet or a paper is just incidental to it.”

However the reach story to magazine is 'not so bad'. He pointed out, “We are looking at multimedia planning and not an integrated planning.”

Some of the recommendations made by Sakhuja listed that 'Content is the heart of what magazines do', 'brands are increasingly entering into paid media', 'Activation being underleveraged by magazines' and 'customisation to be provided by magazines'.

Thomas Ernberg, managing director, Middle East, Volvo compared the future of the magazine industry similar to the automotive sector. “I think we look from magazines is a detailed demographics. We would like to know more about place, habits of consumers.”

Towards the end of session, moderator Jim James, Director, Haymarket Media Group, UK threw a common question to the speakers, 'Are advertisers given what they expect from magazine media'. To which Sakhuja replied, “Needs more proactivity”, Emberg said, “No' and Thomas asserted, “Yes, but there is so much more to it”.

Neha@BestMediaInfo.com

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