Hard Work for Small Dollars

By: Carl Sullivan By 1997, Diane Politi was already a newspaper advertising pro. After starting at the Sentinel Star newspaper in Orlando, Fla., in 1980, she held a variety of positions, including eight years handling major department store accounts. For 18 months, she represented 38 dailies throughout the Sunshine State while working at the Florida Newspaper Advertising Network.

But then in the late '90s, Politi took the dot-com plunge, becoming sales director for Destination Florida, an online joint venture between Tribune Co. and Knight Ridder. "I have never worked so hard, for such small dollars, as I have in my years with selling online advertising," she says. "But, I love it. It's exciting and rewarding. I found out that I like risk-taking and change -- two things I never knew about myself before 1997."

Today, Politi is online advertising sales manager for OrlandoSentinel.com, ElSentinel.com, OrlandoWeather.com, OrlandoCityBeat.com, and Go2Orlando.com. If the past year or so is any indication, then change is indeed a constant in Politi's career, as we found out in this recent interview.

1. Industry wide, a great deal of online advertising revenues are still coming from classifieds. What are your strategies for increasing non-classified advertising?

Politi: One factor that drives our success with non-classified advertisers is the use of what I call "hooks." We've created custom programs for specific business niches that help us attract new advertisers and sell effective online advertising campaigns that produce strong ROIs [return on investment] for our customers. Some of these programs are online only, but many bundle print and online to extend the campaign's reach in the market. In either case, there has to be a "hook" for the advertiser.

For professional and home services, we developed a program called Go to the Pros.

For tourism offices and other travel suppliers, we've created an "advertorial" feature, Destination of the Month. Since travel suppliers have various marketing objectives, we also have other travel-related advertising programs such as Be A Tourist, Click Away Get Away and Travel Hot Deals.

For furniture and home design, we've created a House of Style program.

For colleges and universities, we've created What's Next: A Guide to Higher Education.

We also have programs for restaurants and golf courses on the horizon.

2. What about targeted advertising? This has been a big push by the Tribune Co.

DP: Targeted advertising leverages our database of registered users. As site visitors register on OrlandoSentinel.com, they give us a little information about themselves and their interests, and they "opt in" to receive future offers we make available to them from our advertisers. This is what we call Ad Mail-targeted campaigns that can be e-mailed to select demographic or geographic groups just as one would do with solo direct mail. We also have several e-mail newsletters that are sent daily, weekly or monthly to affinity targets -- users that have expressed interest in a particular topic such as travel, college sports or breaking news. Our registration database also allows us to use Tacoda [Systems] targeting, reaching demographic, geographic or behavioral "look-a-likes" on the Web site itself.

3. As more homes are wired for broadband, how does that affect your job?

DP: Orlando ranks fifth in home broadband usage, with 46% of Orlando Internet users having broadband service (according to Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2003). We've developed a team of interactive graphic designers that have the skills and talents that enable us to meet the rich media needs of local advertisers that cannot afford the third-party services of companies like Eyeblaster or Unicast. Banners alone have not worked effectively for a long time, but interstitials, free-forms and audio/video ads provide excellent results. This type of innovative design work has become an entirely new revenue stream for us as a company -- charging for creative services just like an agency or television station would charge for creating a commercial.

4. Many consumers are keen on pop-up blockers and other technologies that prevent them from ever seeing ads. How do you think the online publishing industry will deal with this development?

DP: How has television dealt with remote controls and TV on demand? How is radio dealing with satellite radio? As consumers get smarter, technology keeps advancing, and media companies find solutions. For now, the solution is better targeting and one-to-one marketing. There is perceived value to advertising when the offer you get matches your interests.

5. Tell us about OrlandoCityBeat.com, your youth site. What advertising opportunities does this site offer?

DP: The OrlandoCityBeat.com site launched in late November 2003, and is already enjoying more than 100,000 site visitors a month that are viewing more than 800,000 pages each month.

There are some really exciting marketing aspects to OrlandoCityBeat.com. First, we've developed a major sponsorship package that gives us four category-exclusive opportunities to offer to advertisers. The major sponsorship package consists of high-impact exposure on the OrlandoCityBeat.com site, radio spots on two local radio stations, print ads in the Street Edition, that is distributed in bars, clubs, restaurants, selected retail outlets as well as on college campuses, and narrow casting television spots on Bar TV. We have partnered with Infinity Broadcasting for the radio spots and with Destination Television for the narrow casting. Our online editorial and sales staffs write, sell and produce the print Street Edition, a "reverse publishing" piece that was designed to "tease" readers to the Web site. We also include events marketing opportunities in the packages, each customized to the specific needs of the advertiser. These unique cross-media sponsorships offer advertisers the ability to target 18- to 34-year-olds when they are online, when they are listening to radio, and when they are out and about in local bars and clubs.

Secondly, we've created a VIP loyalty program. VIP cards are free to consumers, and card holders are entitled to one-of-a-kind offers that are featured on the site.

Finally, we've assembled our Orlando CityBeat Shock Squad, a group of 18- to 34-year-olds that make appearances at local events. The Shock Squad can also be a part of the cross-media package for advertisers, distributing products or fliers at events that attract an 18- to 34-year-old demographic. They also distribute our VIP Cards at these events and take photos that are later featured on the O Lens channel of the site, as well as in the Street Edition.