MPA & CANIEM Host First of Four Professional Development Seminars

MPA has an agreement with CANIEM, a sister association, to offer four professional development seminars a year, assist the organization in developing engagement and accountability research, and to consult with the organization as appropriate.
On April 26th, Wayne Eadie, Senior VP, Research and Charles McCullagh, Senior VP, International, offered a seminar for 65 representatives of the major Mexican publishers about “How to Prove to Agencies that Magazine Advertising Work.”
McCullagh offered an overview of the international publishing scene, focusing on fast developing countries, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) and the quick pace of ad growth. With Mexico, the BRICs, while enjoying strong print advertising growth are feeling the effects of television and the universal advertiser demand for cross-platform and cross-media marketing programs. To be sure, outside of the United States the spending on cross-platform is quite small but the growth over the next ten years is expected to be bullish at the expense of print.
McCullagh raised the question of why the top General Interest Magazines in Latin America (by circulation) were all published in Mexico while the to Special Interest magazines (by circulation) were all published in Brazil. He suggested on reason might be the heavy television focus in Mexico and magazines, many of them later introductions than television, were simply responding to that reality. In effect Mexico is more of a mass market for magazines. Brazil apparently has a longer tradition of special audience and special interest magazines and is likely a little more advanced with niche marketing and especially Internet marketing techniques (for subscriptions).
McCullagh offered the example of launching Scientific American magazine in Brazil and Mexico at the same time. The former was far more successful because the knowledge magazine market was more developed, the use of online credit card use was more accelerated, and there were fewer obstacles in the postal system.
He reminded the attendees that engagement research was really a global phenomenon and not merely an import from the US. He noted that engagement and accountability research was being promoted, if not demanded, by the major global advertising agencies. He commented on CANIEM’s earlier research effort called “8 Myths and Realities,” which attempted to dispel some very basic misunderstandings in the market. The research was a confirmation that Mexicans were significant readers and users of magazines but tended to emphasize the Magazines vs. Television scenario rather than how the two medium can compliment one another. Wayne Eadie would take this issue up in greater detail, suggesting a way forward for magazine publishers in Mexico.
Eadie has been encouraging the Mexican market to conduct ROI studies in “this new age of accountability.” He reminded attendees that one engine of accountability—media mix modeling---is fundamental for most package goods companies, many with a strong footprint in Mexico. He quoted Don Gloeckler, Manager, Media Research, Procter & Gamble, to this effect: “If you haven’t already done a marketing mix model for your brand, do that first.” And from Michael Lolito, CEO, Media IQ: “ROI is the Holy Grail. You want to know something about how your brand is being used, do that first.”
Eadie explained marketing mix modeling as a way to examine how budget reallocation can improve ROI performance and noted that studies that looked at 340 brands over five years have been very consistent. In short, a balanced media mix yields higher ROI. After trade promotion, magazines are the most effective in the marketing mix. Magazines are rarely saturated with advertising while advertising on TV often exceeds the point of no return. Eadie concluded that significant gains in total advertising impact can be achieved by reallocating over-saturated TV “weight” to magazines.. These findings have been consistent across key categories: automotive, financial services, OTC and personal care. He encouraged Mexican publishers to work together and conduct ROI research as an indisputable way to shows agencies the power of magazines, especially in a television-dominant country.
Eadie took the attendees deeper into this issuing by summarizing research from Marketing Evolution on Cross-Media Accountability Studies, an independent aggregation of 20 separate studies—an effort not associated with the MPA. Each study looked at TV, magazines and online with TV having at least 50% of the advertising mix or more. The over-arching, as presented by the speaker, was that magazines remain essential in optimizing media ROI throughout the purchase funnel. He summarized other recent research finding: magazines are the least multi-tasked medium; magazines connect with consumers; and magazines drive traffic to the web.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Eadie’s presentation was research on whether core drivers of reader engagement also drive the effectiveness of advertising appearing in magazines. Over 70 MPA member titles were represented in the study. 25,000 issue-specific readers were surveyed. And more than 5,000 print ads were measured. The results: ad recall and actions taken were significantly higher among engaged readers.
The objective of this seminar was to acquaint Mexican publishers with the state of engagement and accountability research in the US and elsewhere; to offer publishers specific strategies to counter objections to print from agencies; to remind them that most available research indicates that a marketing strategy than combines the strengths of magazines, TV and print result in the best ROI for all channels; and to encourage similar research in Mexico, with an assist from MPA.