Multimedia Wedding Pages generate more than $20k in new revenue for Juneau (AK) Empire
The Challenge
The Juneau Empire had a unique problem. Due to the location of the city--Juneau can only be accessed by plane or boat--the newspaper was never successful at selling a wedding program. Hundreds of folks would have their weddings in Juneau, but reaching those brides-to-be during the planning stage was difficult. While planning the 2003 strategy with The Blinder Group, it was determined adding a Web component could solve this problem. Now, the newspaper would be able to reach people beyond the Juneau area--something they had not been able to do before.
Program Overview
The Juneau Empire developed pages that ran in the newspaper every Wednesday for 13 weeks. "Juneau Brides" contained editorial content about everything a reader needed to know about planning a wedding in Juneau. In addition, the pages contained wedding-related advertising.
All the content in the section appeared on a new area of the Juneau Empire Website. All advertising appeared in both the print pages and on the Web site. To offer greater value, advertisers were linked from an advertising area on the Empire site called Net Marketplace. The program also included links from listings in classified and on the wedding directory site. Advertising on the site will stand for as much as one year depending on the package.
Sales Strategy
Armed with a one-page sales sheet for the site, the sales team of the Juneau Empire hit the streets one week prior to the first publication date. The sales sheets were designed to show advertisers how the print and online products worked together. The Blinder Group returned to the Juneau market to assist the sales team with introducing this exciting new product to advertisers.
Advertisers were offered a bundled package that included both the print and online version of the wedding product. Advertisers that purchased a print ad in the weekly editions also appeared online--linked from text links which appeared on each page of the site. They were able to keep their once-a-week ads active all week long by having them online in addition to reaching a new audience of potential customers. Advertisers buying packages with larger print ads received banners and tiles on the Juneau Brides site.
Results
In three days of selling with The Blinder Group and the Empire generated more than $20,000 in revenue. The Empire sales team was able to secure an additional $3,000 after The Blinder Group left the market. Since the Juneau Empire did not have a solid wedding program in the past, this was all new money.
"The Blinder Group orchestrated another great sales effort here in Juneau in the dead of winter. We have struggled over the years to get a viable Bridal promotion going and in 3 short days, they have effectively gotten a very strong packaged program off and running working with our sales staff. We now have carved out a domain that we should own forever," said Don Smith, Publisher.
Contact Information
The Juneau Empire is a 6,748 daily located in Juneau, Alaska..
For more information about the sales strategy of this program, contact:
Marie Toland, Advertising Director
(907) 586-3740 ex 246
mtoland@juneauempire.com
(907) 586-1428
dsmith@juneauempire.com Connie McGee, Online Sales
(907) 586-3740 ex 264
cmcgee@juneauempire.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
(727) 847-2464 ~ (727) 847-5959 (fax)
profit@blindergroup.com
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