FCPNY

FCPNY
Serving free paper publishers, sales managers and salespeople in NY state

Thursday, August 29, 2013

It's time to make a hot splash!

Being a creature of habit, the first thing I do when I hit the kitchen in the morning is make a cup of Keurig coffee and take it into the family room for my morning news routine. This isn't a 7-Eleven jumbo cup; it's a standard cup, doesn't hold that much or take long to drink. But this morning I spilled it all over the coffee table (how appropriate) and floor. It went everywhere! Boy, when you spread it out and get a good look at it there is a lot more coffee there than meets the eye.

If you're selling free paper advertising, you've got a product in hand that holds the same mystique. And you may have to pour it out all over a prospect to get them to realize that.

Case in point: there is a lot of interest right now in the $684-million advertising budget that's devoted to the coming Affordable Healthcare Act rollout. The Obamacare marketing budget is being driven down to the state level in most cases and I had the opportunity yesterday to speak with a very nice young ad agency lady about the value that Free Community Papers of NY can provide to an organization that needs to reach as many New Yorkers as possible. Predictably, the young gal told me that metro market dailies would be the recipients of the print dollars in this campaign and thank you very much for calling. Incredible! With a program that potentially affects more people in more places than ever these experts have selected one of, if not the fastest shrinking medium available to them. And as far as all those folks in Upstate New York that don't live in a metro area?  Who knows.

This is nothing new, and my pitch to them isn't over, but it's time that all of us in the free paper business take our media kits and marketing information and pour them over every big agency and prospect we can, just like a cup of hot coffee. Make a big spread. Make it hot. When the volume of value we offer burns into their thick skin on a consistent basis maybe we finally will become the default choice for print dollars, or at least get consideration up front. That will only happen when they know we are the best choice with more reach and readership than our metro daily competitors. But to do so we need to be polished, professional and on top of our game with reliable marketing facts. That's where training and assistance that groups like FCPNY can provide to help you do the best job you can.

Call us at 315-472-6007 or email tcuskey@fcpny.com for assistance. Thank you.



PS: If you're reading this and you live in New York State, consider sending a message to our elected officials by voting against all incumbents in the next elections. Let’s send a message that we want New York to be about New York. The agency mentioned above that the NY Health Department is using is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nothing like keeping all the dollars here in NY. A printing firm I once worked for stopped bidding on state work because bids went to out-of-state printers who didn't have to pay the NY taxes and corporation-related fees that we did. That's wrong, but voters can fix it. Thank you again.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Don't get distracted from the coming opportunity!

My wife and I recently drove to Hilton Head, SC for a long week of beach, sun, food and more. Great time, but you notice lots of scary things when you're driving in the car for a long period of time. One thing I noticed on this trip, as well as a recent long weekend to Maine, is that motorcycle helmet laws vary from state to state. Being from Upstate New York (helmets mandatory) it is odd to see a Harley pass you with a rider's hair flowing in the wind, only RayBans separating their noggin from the elements, but we saw quite a few on these trips along the East Coast. Equally scary to other road-residents: a lot of drivers are still talking without a hands-free device. Also, you see a fair number of people who appear to be doing something in their laps while driving...texting I assume? I almost hope that's what they're up to. Personally, I believe hands-free cell communication takes your concentration off the driving just as much as hands-on...and probably as much as driving with a burger in one hand and coffee in the other (we saw that, too!).

In the case for helmets, new high tech ones can have music piped in and a GPS driving-direction map for the face shield is one the way soon.

As I often ask, what does this have to do with advertising? Distraction.

New media, digital/mobile/call-it-what-you-want is distraction based. In the good old days, readers embraced print media and many perused newspapers and shopper publications for the ads. I never knew anyone who watched TV or listened to the radio to see/hear what ads were on. But print ads were welcomed on the whole. Now, ads in general have become an unwelcome distraction. Check out this headline from digitaltrends.com: "Banner ads suck, say guys who invented banner ads." As online and mobile ads become the rule it's the pop-ups, re-directs, e-mail blasts, ad text messages and more that have turned advertising into something invasive. Next scary trend: distraction may be okay with up and coming users.

For example, how many people see and react to mobile ads? According to consumer research by The MMA and Lightspeed Research (October 2010), in UK, France and Germany, 45 percent of consumers (especially younger people) noticed mobile advertising and 29 percent of these responded to it (source: mobithinking.com). Moreover, mobile local ad revenue in the U.S. will grow by 54 percent by 2016, according to a new study by local media advisor company BIA/Kelsey. They say that mobile local ad spending will outpace mobile national ad spending by 2016. BIA/Kelsey projects that local mobile ad spending will account for 58 percent of total ad spending in just four years. The company expects mobile ad spending to reach $9.92 billion by 2016. (source: clickz.com). That's a big pie that is up for local grabs.

As local print publishers we have to be the ones to make this work for users and advertisers:
1. It's a growing revenue stream; we can't let it slip by.
2. We already have local customers and content.
3. We have history on how to get the message across without becoming a distraction or invasion.

At FCPNY we launched OhSoLocal, our local mobile app last year. It hasn't caught on yet; I think we were too early with it. If you want to learn more on how it might work for you or if you need help with any other free paper topic give us a shout at 315-472-6007 or email me at tcuskey@fcpny.com.


Thanks for your time.