Why Top Retailers Rely on Newsbrands

Retail advertising
A briefing for advertisers
and agencies

Retail advertising A briefing for advertisers and agencies2
part 1
our readership is your target audience
3newsworks.org.uk
Contents
Part 1 : The newsbrands audience
Increase in digital reading means a growing audience... 8
...and they are reading for longer than you might think 10
Higher-value customers read newsbrands 12
People read newspapers when the shops are open 14

Part2:Whythetop40retailersallusenewsbrands
The famous “fast cover build” in national press 18
Sundays are a key day of the week for retail 20
Newspapers build retailer brands 22
Newsbrands offer unparalleled flexibility 24
Digital innovation opportunities 26
Creative partnerships 28
Newsbrands are a response medium 30

Part 3 : Creative use of the medium 34
Technical appendix 44
Notes 46
Cover illustration – Tom Gaul
© December 2012
Newsworks is the marketing
body for the national newspaper
industry. It brings advertisers
and newsbrands together.
Guardian News & Media
The Guardian
The Observer
Independent Print
The Independent
The Independent on Sunday
i
Evening Standard
London Evening Standard
Mail Newspapers
Daily Mail
The Mail on Sunday
Mirror Group Newspapers
Daily Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The People
News International
The Sun
The Sun on Sunday
The Times
The Sunday Times
Telegraph Media Group
The Daily Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph

5Retail advertising A briefing for advertisers and agencies4 newsworks.org.uk
Introduction
Open any national newspaper on
any day of the week and it is pretty
well guaranteed that you will come
across a retail ad before long.
Retailers spent about £400million
in newspapers last year – that’s
over a quarter of their annual
advertising budget.
All the big retailers (budgets over
£10million) use newspapers.
It seems to be a universal pattern:
it’s true for national, regional and
local newspapers, and true for
newspapers in other countries too.
Retailers get results by advertising
in newspapers.
What are the reasons for this?
It is down to a combination of
characteristics:
• the scale of the audience (well
over 20 million daily readers)
• the ability to do “retail detail”
as well as presenting the
brand image
• flexibility in terms of short
lead times
• creative solutions which allow
the retailer to harness the power
of editorial
• engaged audiences actively
seeking content.
New technologies are also opening
up new opportunities. Digital is of
course becoming more important
for retailers and the same is true
for newsbrands.
As newspapers migrate onto
digital and mobile platforms
and become newsbrands, their
audience is growing and able to
shop at the click of a button.
Ifyouwouldliketoknowmoreabout
opportunitiesforretailadvertisingin
newsbrands,pleasedogetintouch
withushereatNewsworks.
Rufus Olins
Chief Executive
Newsworks
email
social
newspapers
What is a newsbrand?
events
websites
apps
mobile
“Newspapers are but one expression
of a modern newsbrand.”
Cilla Snowball
Chairman Chief Executive, AMV BBDO
Chairman, Advertising Association

76 newsworks.org.uk
part
The newsbrands
audience
“National press is a valuable medium
for retailers as we are able to target
new and existing customers in
vast quantities and fast. Short lead
times allow us to be agile in a very
competitive market.”
Rebecca Singleton
Marketing Director
Wm Morrison Supermarkets

part 1
the newsbrands audience
A newspaper office in 2012 is
totally different from the press
newsrooms we are used to seeing
in films or TV dramas. It’s not
the change from typewriters to
computers, it’s the change from
print to multi-media.
Newsbrand content is now
published on several different
platforms – principally print, online,
mobile apps, tablet apps – and
the use of video and interactivity is
becoming increasingly widespread.
Newspapers have been investing
heavily in these new capabilities
to offset the slow decline in
print circulations, all developing
different editorial approaches
and business models.
Sinceautumn2012,theNational
ReadershipSurveyhaspublished
NRSPADD(PrintandDigitalData),
whichshowsnettotalreadership
figuresforbothprintandonline
(althoughnotyetformobileorapps).
Contrary to rumour, the reading
audience is actually higher than it
was ten years ago – and growing.
Increase in digital reading
means a growing audience...
Online reading meansaudiencesarebigger than 10 yearsago
Source:
NRS / NRS PADD
Net monthly reach (million)
Print
Additional digital reach
Apr01–Mar02 Apr06–Mar07 Apr11–Mar12
30
40
39.6
40.3
40.9

part 1
Latest figures show that people
are spending record amounts
of time reading digital versions
of newspapers.
According to IPA TouchPoints,
it’s risen by a third between 2010
and 2012 – up from 1 hour 55
minutes a week to 2 hours 37
minutes a week. This isn’t as long
as people spend with printed
newspapers, but it’s catching
up fast.
The growth in digital reading is
largely due to increased availability.
More content is online, and more
reading devices are being used
in more places than ever before
– principally e-readers, mobiles
and tablets.
Tablet devices are the fastest
growing sector at the moment.
Ownership has gone from 2%
in 2011 to around 20% nearing
the end of 2012, with significant
further growth expected driven
by Christmas purchases. Tablets
are a key platform for newsbrands,
as they offer such an immersive
reading experience.
This can only have an
accelerating effect on digital
newsbrand readership.
...and they are reading for
longer than you might think
Time spent reading newsbrands has gone up
Source:
IPATouchpoints3(2010),4(2012)
Online
reading
Hours per week
Print
reading
10 2 3 4
1hr 55 mins
3hrs 47 mins
3hrs 49 mins
2hrs 37 mins
2012
2010

part 1
National press readers represent
a very large part of the population
(roughly 80%) but it’s a part
that is distinguished by certain
characteristics which are very
important for retailers.
For a start nearly half of the
readers are women, who are still
disproportionately important
as shoppers in so many retail
categories. Newspapers reach
16 million women each week –
that is six million more than
women’s magazines do.
Women who read newspapers
are also more likely to be
spending more on their shopping
than those who don’t.
Amongst female “main shoppers”
(as NRS defines them), those
who are heavy consumers of
newspapers are 37% more likely
to be higher value shoppers –
spending £100 or more on their
weekly shopping for food, drink
and groceries.
Newspaper readers are also
more likely to be open to the
influence of advertising. They
actually name advertising as the
most important influence on their
choice of shop: according to TGI,
advertising scores higher than
opening hours, quality of products
and green credentials.
So, these readers are higher-
spending shoppers and they
acknowledge they are open to
the influence of advertising.
What are you waiting for?
Higher-value customers
read newsbrands
Source:NRSJune2012
16mWomen read a
newspaper each week

part 1
Traditionally newspapers have
had a USP for the retailer because
of the time at which they are
consumed. As the chart opposite
shows, most newspaper reading
is concentrated into the daytime –
exactly the time when bricks and
mortar stores are doing business
(to be clear, the total TV audience
is much larger, but concentrated
into evening hours).
So, if people see an ad in the
paper that is relevant to them, the
chances are it is at a time of day
when they can take action and
visit the store in question.
Despite the development of
technology, this is still largely
true. According to a study by
Kelkoo in 2012, only 12% of
shopping is online, so traditional
“offline” purchasing behaviour
still dominates.
However, retailing and advertising
are both in the process of moving
further into the digital space.
People read digital editions of
newsbrands later in the day, and
retailers’ websites are open for
business round the clock. So
connectivity between readers and
retailers is developing all the time.
People read newspapers
while the shops are open
Newspaper reading is focused on shopping hours
Source:IPATouchpoints2012
Base: Alladults
Totalweeklytimespent:TV(20.45hrs),Shopping(2.69hrs),Newspapers(3.02hrs)
% of total time spent with individual media
6ammidnight
15%
0%
Noon 6pm 11pm
Shopping
Newspaper reading
TV viewing
Shops open

16
Why the top 40 retailers
all use newsbrands
part
“The media world is changing fast, but
newspaper brands remain a powerful
force for fast-moving advertisers.”
Richard Smith
Head of Marketing Communications Planning
Marks and Spencer

part 2
why the top 40 retailers all use newsbrands
Some media build up slowly
towards reaching their total
audience. Monthly magazines
and cinema, for example, slowly
accumulate their reach over
weeks and months because for
most people, magazines
and cinema are far from a
daily medium.
In contrast newspapers are
famous for having “fast cover
build”. In everyday English,
this means the average daily
newspaper reaches over 96%
of its readers on the first day of
publication.
This is because of the nature
of news – people rarely read
yesterday’s paper.
This is extremely important for
retailers because the offers in
their marketing messages often
have a limited life, driven by the
competitive pressures of the
market. They have to get the
message home to the maximum
number of relevant customers
before conditions change.
This requires a medium which can
reach a lot of people in a short
space of time. No other medium
can really match newspapers’ mix
of short lead times and fast cover
build to solve this retail problem.
The famous “fast cover build”
in national press
96%of its readers on the first
day of publication
Theaveragedaily
newspaperreachesover

part 2
More than a third of people shop on
Sundays nowadays, so it’s clearly
not the day of rest it used to be.
Media habits change on Sundays
too. We spend longer reading
newspapers, and we are inclined
to keep the various bits
of Sunday papers into the
following week.
Sunday newspapers tend to be
very different from their weekday
versions: bigger, more in-depth
and with more sections for people
interested in specific subjects
such as fashion and food – which
can be valuable environments
for the advertiser.
Our mindset is different on
Sundays too: research by the Mail
on Sunday shows that we are more
relaxed and more likely to “invite
media in” to our lives, rather than
feeling it is intruding. This means
the advertiser can share this more
relaxed mood, with the opportunity
to start conversations with the
readers, rather than feel the need
to close deals.
Importantly for the retailer,
IPA TouchPoints shows that
over half the people who do go
shopping on Sundays (54%)
are newsbrand readers.
Sundays are a key day
of the week for retail
readers shop on a Sunday
MON | TUES | WED | THURS | FRI | SAT | SUN
readers shop on a Sunday
MON | TUES | WED | THURS | FRI | SAT | SUN
SOURCE: IPA TOUCHPOINTS 2012

part 2
Just because the national press
is good at covering off all the
“retail detail” – prices, terms and
conditions, store locations etc
– this doesn’t mean it can’t do a
brand-level job.
Advertising research consistently
demonstrates that campaigns with
an emotional component are more
effective than pure information.
Theyhavelongerandbroader
effects,whichgobeyondpurely
drivingtoday’ssales.
To understand why newspapers are
a good place to create these brand
effects, you need to remember the
newspaper relationship:
• people are reading actively,
turning pages, looking for things
that interest them or catch
their eye
• people are in a familiar and trusted
media environment, one where
they feel they know the values
and the language
Newspapers build
retailer brands
• if a press ad makes the reader
stop and think, they can pause
as long as they want
• most readers are regular
readers, and see ads develop
into campaigns
This means that ads which “start
conversations with” the readers,
rather than just presenting them
with information, are operating in a
potentially very fertile environment.
The John Lewis ad opposite is a
good demonstration of the way
some retailers have ongoing
brand-level conversations with their
customers through the pages of
newspapers.
However it’s worth remembering
that these brand-level effects
are taking place even when an
ad is full of details about prices,
specifications, deals, etc.
As the Aldi ad from the Daily
Mirror shows, the range of offers
presented together under the Aldi
brand name all combine together
to create an overall message or
impression about the retailer.

part 2
Flexibility is one of the retailer’s
constant requirements from
advertising media, because retail
is such a fast-moving marketplace,
with large areas of unpredictability.
For example, Christmas is a key
season for most retailers, planned
in some detail months in advance
– but there are always surprises
when the season arrives and rivals’
activities are revealed.
The weather has strong effects on
the retail market too, and retailers
are constantly having to adjust their
offers to take account of the latest
cold spell/gales/heatwave etc.
Equally unpredictable are areas
like the hayfever and flu seasons,
when retailers have to get product
advertising into the market place
at extremely short notice.
This is an area that newspapers
are famous for, because of their
combination of characteristics:
• short lead times: ads can
be devised and run at very
short notice
• multiple copy: different ads can
cover off different opportunities
• reach people quickly: over 96%
read on the day of publication
This is also why newspapers tend
to be the medium of choice when
cheeky tactical ads are run, like
this recent Specsavers ad, which
ran in the Independent the day
after Ukraine’s disallowed goal
against England in Euro 2012,
when the incident was still the talk
of the nation.
With the development of digital
platforms, this element of flexibility
will only increase.
Newsbrands offer
unparalleled flexibility

part 2
Changes in technology mean
that huge opportunities have been
opened up in terms of going beyond
conventional print advertising.
One of the fastest growing areas
is augmented reality (AR), whereby
readers use their smartphone or
tablet to download an app, and then
point the device at a newspaper ad,
which then becomes animated.
In the GAP example opposite, when
the Aurasma app “sees” the print
ad, the dancer (Lil Buck) comes to
life, modelling the clothes in a dance
video (this was published in a Times
T2 “Scan-to-Shop” feature).
In the Jaguar ad, which appeared
in the London Evening Standard,
when the BlippAR app is directed
at the print ad, the device runs a
video of the car in motion and goes
through to offer further options to
the reader – explore the range, ask
for a test drive and so on.
These are new applications
and it’s easy to imagine the increase
in engagement levels which these
can bring to the printed page
for readers.
If you want to try out a QR
(Quick Response) code:
download an app (there
are several) and let your
smartphone/tablet scan the
QR Code here – it will take you
to the Newsworks website.
Digital innovation
opportunities
newsworks.org.uk

part 2
Brands that collaborate with the
editorial of a newspaper can
create joint projects – advertorials,
supplements, special editions,
regular columns etc – which can
engage readers with new and
original content beyond advertising.
A good example of this is the
Tesco “Captain Crunch” series of
editorial features in The Sun, where
readers were offered advice about
saving money during the downturn,
together with Tesco vouchers.
This type of partnership needs
planning – there were people
involved from several departments
on both sides. Results can be
beneficial for both parties, with
stronger bonds being built between
reader, advertiser and newsbrand.
The activity can also be extended
onto the digital platforms
– for example, the Telegraph’s
“My Dream Kitchen” widget for
Wickes, where readers could
experiment with different kitchen
ideas and styles at the dedicated
microsite and continue through
to contact Wickes directly.
There is more about how
engagement works in this arena
in the Guardian’s newly published
Online Engagement Study
(see appendix).
Don’t forget there are plenty of
hard-working solutions in the print
arena too: inserts, tip-ons, cover
wraps, samples and so on. There
are even scented inks – lemons,
hot cross buns…
Creative partnerships

part 2
Ifyouarearetailerwithstockto
move,thenthenationalpressisthe
mediumofchoice–that’swhyall
thetop40retailbrandsuseit.For
yearsnewsbrandshavebeenthe
“calltoactionmedium”,generating
responsefromreadersanddriving
businessintostores.
Partofthisisbecauseofcontext.
Advertisinginnewsbrandsis
consumedactively,andinan
environmentwhichisfamiliar
andtrusted(incontrasttooutdoor
forexample).Thiscontextmeans
thatpeoplearemorelikelyto
respondtoads.
Thiswasdemonstratedrecently
inatestbytheAssociationof
OnlinePublishers,whichmeasured
responsetoadsamongonline
readers(whoseexactexposureand
responseratescouldbeanalysed).
Amongpeoplewhowereexposed
totheadvertisingonanewsbrand
site(“originalcontent”site),response
totheadvertisingwasalmostdouble
thatofpeoplewhohadseensome
adsonsocialnetworksorportals.
Newsbrandsareusuallyonepart
ofamulti-mediamix,andresearch
showsthattheyhaveanaccelerator
effectonresponsivenessacross
thewholecampaign.Thechart
opposite,whichisbasedonthe
25EffectivenessTestsrunfor
NewsworksbyMillwardBrown,
showsthataddingnewspapersto
TVcreatesa43%increaseinthe
numberofrespondentswhofeelthe
advertising“givesthemareasonto
gooutandbuy”theproduct.
Newsbrands are
a response medium
Response levels are even stronger when
newspapers combine with TV advertising
% agreeing “the advertising gives me a reason to go out and buy”
Source:
Millward Brown Effectiveness Tests
TV solus
Any newspaper
TV + newspaper
49
65
70

32
Creative use
of the medium
part
“The real fact of the matter is that
nobody reads ads. People read what
intereststhem,andsometimesit’sanad.”
Howard Luck Gossage
US advertising guru
a.k.a. “The Socrates of San Francisco”

part 3
creative use of the medium
Timing is everything:
Amazon ties its Kindle to the moment
Different strokes:
Asda uses newsbrands to promote both price and appetite appeal

part 3
General and specific:
Newsbrands speak both languages for ebay
Change hearts and minds:
Newsbrands help retailers to challenge perceptions

part 3
Setting the public agenda:
IKEA gets its birthday noticed
Quality claims build the brand:
and so do high-quality product ads

part 3
Familiarity breeds expectations:
How Lidl established the half-price weekend
Take your time:
Press allows readers to stop and think

part 3
Be there, be consistent:
Short-term messages build long-term values
Brand conversation:
MS uses newsbrands for customer dialogue

UKOM
UKOM provides online audience
measurement, including reach, frequency
and time spent on websites.
UKOM uses a panel-based methodology,
with at least 35,000 UK individuals aged 2+.
Online activity is tracked through software
installed on the panellists’ computers.
The data is reported on a monthly basis.
ukom.uk.net/methodology.html
ABC
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) is
the industry standard body providing
independent verification of circulation/data
figures. ABC reports print circulations and
digital traffic.
www.abc.org.uk
NRS
Respondents are asked about their
readership of newspapers, newspaper
supplements and magazines, as well as
information about themselves.
TheNRSisacontinuoussurvey,madeupof
36,000interviewsayearwithadultsaged15+.
The data is released four times a year.
www.nrs.co.uk/interview.html
TGI TGI Net
Respondents are asked about their media
use, product use and other areas such as
lifestyle statements, socio demographic
classifications and geodemographics.
TGI is a continuous survey, made up of
25,000 interviews a year with adults 15+.
TGI Net is a fusion of TGI data with Internet
Monitor; this provides an enhanced
understanding of internet users.
The data is released four times a year.
kantarmedia-tgigb.com/tgi-surveys/gb/
kantarmedia-tgigb.com/tgi-surveys/tgi-net/
comScore
comScore provides online audience
measurement, including reach, frequency
and time spent on websites.
comScore uses a panel-based
methodology, consisting of more than
60,000 UK individuals aged 6+.
Online activity is tracked through software
installed on the panellists’ computers.
The data is reported on a monthly basis.
www.comscore.com/content/view/full/978
Technical appendix
IPA TouchPoints
TouchPoints provides insights into how
people use all media.
There are two key constituents that make
up the IPA TouchPoints Databases:
1. The Hub Survey – a detailed view of
‘a week in the life’ of consumer behaviour.
Data is generated through a survey
of c.5,500 adults, using information
gathered through individuals’ eDiaries
and self-completion questionnaires.
2. The TouchPoints Channel Planner –
uses the Hub Survey as a base onto
which all the industry currencies are
incorporated to produce the cross media
channel planning tool.
The latest version is TouchPoints 4
which covers the survey period July –
December 2011.
www.ipa.co.uk/page/about-touchpoints
Millward Brown CrossMedia™
MillwardBrownCrossMedia™hasbeenused
byNewsworkstomeasurethecontributionof
differentmediatoincreasingbrandmetrics.
CrossMedia™ is a continuous survey that
runs throughout the campaign. The sample
is made up of c.2000 consumers (100
interviews per week).
Eachrespondentanswersdetailedmedia
consumptionquestions,sothatfrequencyof
exposuretoeachmediumcanbeascertained.
Bycomparingrespondents’varyinglevelsof
exposuretothedifferentmediaelements,
themodelidentifiestheextenttowhicheach
mediumaffectschangesinbrandmeasures.
www.millwardbrown.com/Solutions/
ProprietaryTools/CrossMediaResearch.aspx
Online Engagement
– study by The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/online-
engagement
“Say it on a Sunday” study
by Mail on Sunday
http://www.mailconnected.co.uk/stats/
news?item=4287

Notes

newsworks
Dorland House
18-20 Regent Street
London
SW1Y 4PH
+44 (0) 20 7839 8935
@ newsworks_uk
Elizabeth Taylor
“How can money be
the root of all evil when
shopping is the cure
for all sadness?”

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