Tampa (FL) Tribune Ad Reps Embrace Online Sales to Generate Hundreds of Thousands of New Online Revenue for TBO.com
The Opportunity
With a daily circulation of over 228,000, the Media General owned Tampa Tribune is one of the most respected newspapers in the world. Their TV counterpart (also owned by Media General) WFLA-TV is the area's most watched TV station. Together, both operations contribute content to Tampa Bay's number one Web site: TBO.com. With an audience of over one point four million unique viewers each month, the award winning TBO.com has become an industry leader.
No other media operation has a batter grasp on converging multimedia content than the Media General properties of Tampa, Florida. Print, TV and online have been working together for years in brining the Tampa Bay area the most extensive and up-to-date news products.
The new challenge was finding methods to offer more convergent sales opportunities to local advertisers. More specifically, a strategic plan needed to be developed, that would allow the Tampa Tribune's local sales department an easy to sell method, that would utilize the TBO.com audience as a means to increase their share of business in the marketplace. TBO.com General Manager Kirk Read contacted The Blinder Group to consult on the project. Mike Blinder met with senior management from both the print and online divisions to help craft a program that would meet the challenge. A new sales program was developed called "Maximum Impact Advertising" that offered newspaper advertisers the ability to extend their newspaper message on the pages of TBO.com.
Program Overview
TBO.com allocated fourteen million, six hundred thousand (14,600,000) online ad impressions each month, for exclusive sale by the Tampa Tribune's traditional advertising sales department. These ad impressions were divided between two existing positions available, on most pages throughout the entire TBO.com Web site.
The actual online ads being offered for sale were to be designed and developed by the Tampa Tribune's traditional production department. All ads were developed as a means to augment an advertiser's newspaper campaign, using "copy" from their current ad. Only newspaper advertisers were able to participate in this program. The ads, once placed on the Web page, were programmed to offer a link to an online version of the participating advertiser's current newspaper ad.
Three separate "packages" of the program, were offered for sale to local advertisers, by the traditional sales staff of the Tampa Tribune. All "packages" offered each advertiser a minimum number of monthly ad impressions. The content of the online ad would be changed each time the advertiser placed a new newspaper ad in the Tampa Tribune. The program was offered for a full year's commitment.
Specific lists of advertisers were developed by the Tampa Tribune's sales managers targeting:
… Current larger newspaper advertisers with high levels of spending on competing media who should be targeted for "up-sell" into this program, as a means to acquire more "market share."
… Non-newspaper advertisers who advertise on competing media who would benefit from a new bundled print/online program.
Mike Blinder of the Blinder Group returned to the Tampa Tribune for two of the initial training sessions with the traditional ad reps. The program was presented to the entire sales force along with customized printed, easy-to-present sales materials, developed by The Blinder Group. "Blinder's sales team training was exactly the message I wanted them to hear." Said Bruce Faulmann, Tampa Tribune's VP of Advertising and Sales. " The ad reps were taught that the Web is all about audience, not about technology. They were encouraged to feel good about taking the Web to their advertisers, even if they weren't comfortable themselves with computers. They were made to feel empowered about their growing online audience as a complement to their print offerings."
In order to provide more excitement within the entire Tampa Tribune sales staff, an incentive plan was developed by the staff of TBO.com that offers performance-based sales incentives and ongoing commissions to the newspaper ad reps and their associated sales team.
Results
The Blinder Group returned to the market with three associates for five full days of assisted sales training/ closing calls, on targeted advertisers, with the Tampa Tribune sales reps. The result was nearly $325,000 of new online business generated from existing newspaper advertisers. In many cases these new dollars came as a direct result of the advertiser reallocating their spending levels from competing media. In some cases, advertisers increased their print advertising commitments in order to take advantage of the program. "TBO.com received essentially what we targeted with The Blinder training program," states Kirk Read, TBO.com General Manager. "Prior to working with the Blinder Group, the traditional newspaper ad reps weren't as comfortable selling the Web to their advertisers as they deserved to be. Once we completed the initial phase of the process, a new level of excitement and confidence was established around taking TBO.com to our more traditional advertiser base. Because of this, TBO.com signed advertising contracts with several major newspaper clients who had previously rejected online advertising proposals. In a few cases our newspaper reps were even able to sell more print thanks to TBO.com being part of the offerings. Moreover we generated hundreds of thousands of new annual online revenue commitments over a one week period, all sold collaboratively by the Tribune sales department, TBO.com reps and The Blinder Group team." Upon completion of the program, Phil Harris, Vice President of Interactive Sales for Media General, added: "Media General couldn't be happier with the results of the Blinder program. We now have traditional ad reps all over the Tampa area that feel more comfortable with taking the Web to their advertisers. Plus we added a lot of new online revenue. We plan to deploy Blinder and his team in more Media General markets."
Contact Information
For more information about the sales strategy and program deployment of this product, contact:
Bruce Faulmann, Vice President of Advertising and Sales, Tampa (FL) Tribune
(813) 259-7705
bfaulmann@tampatrib.com
813-259-8020
ttaormina@tbo.com Kirk Read, General Manager, TBO.com
(813) 259-8353
KRead@tbo.com Lead Consultant for The Blinder Group:
Mike Blinder, President
(917) 865-4827
mike@blindergroup.com
The Blinder Group
Tampa Offices: 6139 Fjord Way
New Port Richey, FL 34652 USA
(727) 847-2464 ~ (727) 847-5959 (fax)
profit@blindergroup.com
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