The publishers sing their praises, the marketers laud their value and the media directors cross themselves twice and spontaneously launch into a chant of guarded scepticism. So what is it about custom publications that raise emotions to such heights of pain and pleasure?
“Unlike the legal system, I take the stance that ‘every medium is guilty until proven innocent,'” says Gordon Muller, managing director of OMD and chairman of the Advertising Media Forum (AMF). “Publishers need to understand that it is incumbent on media decision-makers to always act in the best interests of our clients, not necessarily in the best interests of the media owner.”
Stewart Ramsay, CEO of the Herdbuoys and Ramsay Communication Group, provides a strong caveat to that statement. “There can be no doubt or debate that media decision-makers should at all times act in the best interests of their clients. But from the other side of the fence a perception that is growing is that the ad industry has lost the ability to source opportunities for their clients, and that assessment of an opportunity for clients is based on how many pieces of paper they get from the publisher making the proposal.”
Debating the issue of custom publishing with media directors and custom publishers is like dodging landmines in a single-track maze. Pressing topics that are bubbling dangerously close to the surface include lack of accountability and strong-arm sales tactics by publishing houses, as well as ignorance and oversight of the value of the medium by media directors. What cannot be ignored is that custom publishing is proving highly lucrative to a number of publishers and extremely attractive to prospective clients, and the trend shows no sign of abating.
Sam Wilson, strategic planning director of The Publishing Partnership, publishers of such titles as Clicks ClubCard, Pulse and Edgars Imagine, explains that the value of custom publishing versus traditional advertising from a client perspective is in the emphasis of the brand. “While traditional advertising flirts – attracting new customers with brand promises – custom publishing engages, reinforcing a consumer’s brand experience. It isn’t a question of either/or, but rather how to mesh the two so that they loop into one continuous conversation with the consumer.”
Wilson argues that while traditional advertising jostles with competitors for a target consumer’s attention, custom magazines give a direct line into the home of the customer, where research indicates that one is likely to get over twenty minutes of their attention.
If it’s attention and retention we’re talking, that’s a powerful sales pitch to potential clients. Tim Carter, general manager of marketing for Virgin Active SA, says it’s all about retaining an identified audience. “We have 450,000 members and to date have never communicated with them. Our publication, Journey, allows us to do so three times a year. Advertising more might drive acquisition, but it will do nothing for our existing members.”
So is that why Virgin Active have decided to spend millions on a custom publication? “The figure is nowhere near what the industry is bandying about,” says Carter. “Sure, we could create a buff ad or three, but that won’t have any impact on our existing members. This year we have a three-tiered strategy – acquisition, retention and positioning. This is our retention portion of the budget, and here we aim to be member-centric.”
Journey is produced for Virgin Active by respected consumer magazine group Touchline Media, who have been handling the Discovery customer title for a number of years. Journey‘s publisher Paul Ingpen (also publisher of Golf Digest, Runner’s World and Bicycling), sings from the same hymn-sheet as Carter: “Both Virgin and Discovery spend a fortune on advertising on various levels using a host of platforms. Custom magazines for them are predominantly focused on customer communication and retention.”
Other publishers are equally adamant about the value in this “niche” type of marketing. Irna van Zyl, executive director and co-founder of New Media Publishing, says the company’s publications have achieved tremendous success. “Last year a response card in the Mercedes magazine attracted a response rate of over 20%. Woolworth’s Taste has achieved sell-through of 92% with certain issues. In research for our client Alexander Forbes we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response to the question ‘do you find the information in this magazine useful for your business?'”
Ravi Naidoo, managing director of Interactive Africa, publishers of Design Indaba Magazine and the massive Vodaworld Magazine, seems to take that last question to heart when approaching clients. “Fortunately [Vodacom CEO] Allan Knott-Craig is a man who can be persuaded by a good idea and was prepared to listen to a marketing zealot,” says Naidoo. “We convinced him to spend 1% of his marketing budget on customer retention, specifically on a monthly subscriber publication [free for Vodacom subscribers] that would build a bridge between Vodacom and its customers and build loyalty by guiding cellphone users through the thorny thicket of technology.”
The personal and targeted aspect of custom magazines is showing itself to be a big plus for clients all round. Keith Stewart, chairman of golfing estate Pezula, says the company chose to create its own custom magazine (produced by New Media Publishing) as it wanted a far more personal and credible way to reach selective clients. “Pezula is at the very high end of the market. Pezula Private Estate consists of only 255 residential stands ranging from R2-million to R14-million. The Pezula Resort Hotel and Spa is the first luxury resort hotel in South Africa targeting high net worth individuals. Pezula and our associated companies have a database in excess of 15,000 which we can target directly with our magazine, as well as displaying them in major hotels and lounges.”
But while all this may mean the magazine is reaching its market, it doesn’t mean the market is reading it. “Leaving a magazine in my car, hotel room or airline seat is not proof of a relationship,” argues Muller. “At best it creates an opportunity for casual exposure. It’s rather like me trying to convince my mates that I was chatted up by a gorgeous young woman in the pub last night — purely on the basis that I was sitting at the bar and I happened to be available. I should be so lucky.”
Nonetheless, executive director of kulula.com Gidon Novick is only too happy for the airline’s in-flight magazine, kulula.comic, to act as a medium for casual exposure. “From a business perspective, kulula.comic doesn’t cost us anything. From a marketing perspective, it’s a great communications and marketing tool. It gives our fans some light, offbeat entertainment on board to supplement the theatrics of our cabin crew. Importantly, it’s also a chance for us to talk to our fans about developments at kulula.com.”
Deidre Theron-Loots of Siyaya Publishing and subsidiary TCB Publishing backs up the assessment (Siyaya publishes Indwe, the in-flight magazine for South African Express Airways, and as of July 2005 TCB will publish the in-flight magazine for 1time Airline). Says Theron-Loots: “The best thing about the in-flight magazines that we publish is that they are free to the specific airlines. So, the airline can have an in-flight magazine for free and still spend its entire advertising budget— In-flight magazines are quite unique in that they provide the airlines with an opportunity to communicate with their clients in ‘real time’, i.e. while the client (passenger) is using the product (flight).”
So back to the pervading opinion that media directors shun custom publications in favour of consumer publications when advising their clients on where to place spend. Why, according to the publishers, is it happening? “Simple,” says Wilson, “they are short-sighted. Think about it—would you rather place your ad spend with one of 30 odd newsstand titles, almost all with declining circulations, or with one of four or five retailers, who move the bulk of your product? In this climate of information deluge, the retailer is fast becoming the new media owner. Look at the UK magazine publishing industry – where the three magazines with the highest ABCs are all customer titles. Look at the US, where a recent survey of marketing directors showed that over 90% successfully integrate custom publishing into their marketing mix. All over the world, advertisers are seeing the benefits of custom publishing.”
Wilson cites a stationary supplier that, after placing a half-page ad in The Publishing Partnership’s Clicks ClubCard title, reported a 300% growth in sales. “If you produce a well targeted and engaging read and can prove its effectiveness as a communication vehicle, it’s easy to sell advertising,” she says.
Megan Scharffenorth of New Highway Publishing mentions the Foschini Club Magazine as an example of a successful publication that has gone down well with advertisers and customers. “It’s been proven via reader surveys and redemption of coupons, giveaways and bounce-back vouchers, that the magazine is really effective in getting customers in-store. From our and Foschini’s point of view, that’s exactly what we want.”
Given the publishers’ confidence in their products and their feeling that South Africa’s media agencies deliberately guide clients away from custom magazines, the knock-on effect can be a direct-to-client approach.
Says Ramsay: “Our company’s policy is not to ignore or circumvent the advertising industry. But—on numerous occasions we have approached the advertising industry with valid proposals for their clients, where we believed that the profile of a particular publication was perfect. The vast majority of these approaches have been met with a negative response. Naturally the reaction is to take the proposal directly to the party concerned. If you are in business you implement the strategy that is beneficial to you.”
Henk Botes, head of Picasso Headline, points out that media directors are doing a disservice to their clients by failing to recognise the value of custom and niche publishing. “This is why we deal directly with clients. In our opinion the situation will eventually change and the day will come when advertising agencies realise the benefits that we bring to their advertising clients.”
But the media directors say there’s more to the negative responses than mere oversight of the value of the medium. Proven track record is vital; and for all intents and purposes it is simply not forthcoming.
“It’s not unreasonable to expect solid evidence of previous performance,” says Muller. “Many custom publishers are unable to furnish minimum guarantees such as independently researched readership figures. With respect to ABC circulation in particular, our stance is simply: no audited circulation, no advertising support. It’s a minimum gesture of goodwill from the publisher. I don’t know that media directors are any more vigilant about custom publishers than any other medium. We are simply looking at a case of more of this media type failing to meet the accepted standards.”
CEO of MindShare Mike Nussey is equally adamant about the principle of basic accountability. “Quite simply put, no provable returns on investment means no advertising investment. The custom publishing sector has made no serious commitment to investing in credible research that backs up their claimed sales, readership or value to their readers. If they are not prepared to do so, is this not perhaps an acknowledgement of what they think is the actual value and delivery of their offering?”
Some publishers agree with the need for measurements, be it ABCs or other research. There’s a view, however, that it’s not just about the numbers. “What media directors should be looking out for is not only audited circulation, even if it’s verified free distribution, but also outstanding quality and who is publishing the magazine before they shun custom publishing,” says van Zyl. “We certainly have to push for more research in South Africa, and New Media Publishing is very serious about that.”
Ingpen doesn’t mince his words either on what custom publishers should and should not do. “In essence many custom magazines that fall under the ‘club mag’ category are not truly clubs where one would typically find homogenous groups with
similar interests and affluence—Add to this the vulnerability of advertising in publications that are not always audited but based on claimed reach of audiences with questionable distribution accuracy, and you have an unknown quantity that brands and their agencies would rather avoid. These publications most often require ‘hard sell’ and massive discounting…”
In response to Nussey’s comment that “custom print titles do have a place under the sun, but there are many other media vehicles that have not been tainted by the bad business practices that some have used in the past,” Cameron Bramley, CEO of Results Media Group, says: “Credible publishers are plain and simply tired of being dismissed due to a couple of fly-by-night dodgy operations. The ability for quality niche media owners in South Africa to survive and grow the industry is symbiotic with the support they get from the ad agencies. At least give us the benefit of the doubt.”
Accountability is one issue. Similarly, media directors assert that many custom publications simply don’t pass muster in terms of the quality of editorial content. Gordon Patterson, managing director of Starcom, suggests that “a magazine compiled of mis-fitting articles sourced from freelance writers neither constitutes nor creates a magazine with which discerning readers or advertisers would want to build a relationship.”
For her part, van Zyl stands by the credibility of her titles. “We’ve certainly proven that we can compete with consumer magazines,” she says. “Taste (Woolworths) has just been awarded with the Admag Best Local Publication against all the consumer titles. It generally sells out with every issue and people pay R21,95 to have it.”
Aah, the free versus paid-for debate. Says Muller: “Conventional wisdom, and every research study I have ever read for that matter, points to the fact that a title that is purchased by a consumer has a far more impactful relationship with the reader than one which is given away.” None of the publishers are ready to address that one directly, but van Zyl does point out that it is incumbent upon the publisher to make sure that there is no stigma attached to any particular title, “free” or not.
Despite hard-hitting comments from media directors, there is some acknowledgement that recognition of professional publishers exercising good business practice needs to be forthcoming. “As an industry we need to encourage and applaud professional services in the interests of all,” says Patterson. “We must deter lack of professionalism – even under threat of legal reprisals. It just seems too easy in our industry for the less scrupulous publisher to promise the world, bully and mislead unsuspecting decision-makers into giving them advertising support.”
From the publisher’s point of view, it is generally agreed that a standard set of guidelines upon which media directors could base their decision-making would certainly go a long way towards reaching a happier state of the nation.
“These debates have been going on forever,” says Bramley. “When are the media owners and publishers going to get together and resolve these issues and move forward? Instead of perpetually criticising, why not stop looking at problems and find solutions? Principles are far bigger than personalities and the overall media industry is far bigger than all of us.”