By: Joe Nicholson 'Chronicle' Moves 106 Discounted Full Pagers In Afternoon
While others moaned about slow ad sales, the Kane County
Chronicle in Geneva, Ill., recently used a special "Full Page
Mania" promotion to sell 106 discounted full-page ads in less
than two hours, raking in $54,000.
The Chronicle, which normally charges a one-time
advertiser nearly $2,000 for a full page, offered 67% off its
regular price for those who called between 1 and 1:30 p.m. on
March 21. The discount dropped to 54% during the next half hour
and decreased to 45% during the subsequent half hour. All but a
small number of buyers called promptly and got the deepest
discount.
Newspapers often shun discounted ad promotions because "most of
us are afraid [advertisers] are going to expect it all the time,"
Publisher Roger F. Coleman said. The Chronicle, however,
made certain that "advertisers understood that this was a special
sale much like they have in their own businesses," Coleman
explained.
Most of the discount buyers weren't regular advertisers, but, in
subsequent days, three of them returned to become repeat
advertisers. The Monday-to-Saturday paper, with a circulation of
13,021, promoted its offer with a mailing of 2,000 four-color
flyers and transmission of 1,000 faxes.
With the nation's ad-sales pace "as tight as it is, you have to
do something different," said Corey A. Clark, retail sales
manager. On the morning of March 21, nine sales representatives
made several hundred promotional telephone calls. "We fed them
breakfast," said Clark, referring to his sales reps. "We fed them
lunch."
Most of the discounted ads were bought by stores, such as those
that offer furniture. One new advertiser was a niche store that
sells clothing for ceramic geese used as lawn decorations.
The Chronicle picked up the idea for "Full Page Mania"
from the Bowling Green, Ky., Daily News, which used the
same tagline to conduct a similar promotion on Jan. 19, Clark
said. The Daily News sold 102 full-page ads, reaping
$51,000.
Joe Nicholson (jnicholson@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering marketing and advertising for E&P.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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