San Francisco (CA) Chronicle Generates Hundreds of Thousands in New Online Revenue in Just One Week
The Challenge
With a daily circulation of over 500,000, the Hearst-owned Chronicle is one of the most read and respected newspapers in the world. The Chroniclešs companion Web site, SFGate.com, is also one of the worldšs most respected, now ranking as the fourth most-visited newspaper Web site on the globe. The reasons for branding "The Gate" separately from the Chronicle stemmed more from necessity than from culture.
Today, SFGate.com maintains a local and national sales force with separate retail and classified online managers. Recently, these two positions were incorporated within the existing sales departments with more revenue responsibilities falling on the shoulders of Chronicle sales managers. "Selling 'The Gate' and Chronicle together presents quite a challenge," said Gordon (Gordy) Prouty, vice-president of advertising for the Chronicle. "The sales staff and our customers were conditioned that these are separate products and separate buys. The Blinder team came in and helped us bring the two together in a multimedia package and have helped us to more effectively sell it in the marketplace."
The Blinder Group was asked to assist at the behest of Ian Murdock, digital media director of the Hearst Corp. "Mike has worked at a number of our newspapers and I have always believed that his message would resonate in any market." Said Murdock. "Essentially, The Blinder Group helps sales reps begin to understand that rather than having this interactive boat anchor that they need to haul to meeting and hoist onto the table, the Internet actually aids the sale. Those that recognize this power exceed their goals and have another extremely powerful sales tool at their disposal."
Cauthorn agreed. "Anyone spending money on outdoor(advertising) is making a huge mistake in this market," he said. "Our Web sites can deliver the same message to more people for vastly less money." Recent Media Stat reports confirm that an advertiser would have to purchase more than five Bay-area radio stations to acquire the reach of a single buy on SFGate.com. And the online buy can be done for one tenth of the cost.
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Program Overview
The Blinder Group performed initial training programs and facilitated product-development meetings with senior sales management. It was decided that a cost-effective online banner campaign that would offer newspaper advertisers an "animated billboard," reflecting the same message they were placing in their normal weekly print campaigns. Advertisers were guaranteed a minimum number of monthly exposures on Web pages at an extremely efficient price, as long as they committed to a full yearšs participation in the program.
Web designers of SFGate.com trained the print ad designers at the Chronicle on how to build these banners for traditional advertisers. A target list of over 250 prospects was generated from existing newspaper advertisers, as well as likely candidates that were not advertising. The Chroniclešs ad designers assisted in the sales effort by designing hundreds of printed "spec sheets" that the sales reps could use in presenting the program. Compensation plans were designed to award not only the traditional ad reps, but the designers as well, for each sale made.
Results
The Blinder Group again returned to the market to retrain the sales reps and to make assisted sales training/closing calls. At the end of the first week, the Chroniclešs traditional sales team had generated hundreds of thousands of new online revenues from existing advertisers , and had used the new program to convince some non-print advertisers to buy the print/online program as a total marketing solution. "Final revenue projections for the program could conceivably double by the time it is sold out," said Cauthorn.
"We could not be more happy with the results," Prouty said. "The sales people are energized and motivated to close more business. We accomplished incremental revenue growth and a culture change all within a single week. Now it is our mission to continue the charge and keep the momentum going."
Cauthorn added, " We accomplished more in one week in getting the salespeople on board than we have in years of training. Having the 'outside voice' played a big part in getting the same message through that we have been trying to say to our sales reps for years. We will continue to reinforce the message with weekly meetings and continued sales call assistance."
Contact Information
For more information about the sales strategy of this program, contact:
Gordon Prouty, Vice-President of Advertising, San Francisco Chronicle
(415) 777-7415
gprouty@sfchronicle.com
Bob Cauthorn, Vice President Digital Media, San Francisco Chronicle
(415) 777-6347
cauthorn@sfgate.com
Lead Consultant for The Blinder Group:
Mike Blinder
(917) 865-4827
mike@blindergroup.com
The Blinder Group
Tampa Offices: 6139 Fjord Way
New Port Richey, FL 34652 USA
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