Six months after it began benchmarking the fledgling business of local search, The Kelsey Group says it has emerged as one of the hottest new online advertising categories. While the marketplace does face some unique challenges, the Kelsey analysts say the cost effectiveness of local search is so powerful that it ultimately could compete with other forms of advertising used by local businesses and services, including local yellow pages, direct mail, newspapers and radio.
The amount of money marketers spend on newspaper advertising is expected to increase by about 4.1 percent in the coming year, according to the 2004 forecast for the newspaper business, published in the January issue of Presstime magazine. Presstime is the flagship publication of the Newspaper Association of America.
"When you talk about holiday gift guides, it sounds very un-alternative," Baltimore City Paper Publisher Don Farley says. Maybe so, but while some AAN papers publish gift guides devoted solely to advertising, others season the ads with sex and satire and the kind of edgy content that would never make it past mainstream-media gatekeepeers.
Already a fixture in venues as diverse as urinals, baggage carousels and beach trash cans, commercial pitches are proliferating in alternative places as consumers tune out messages in more traditional media, notes Los Angeles marketing consultant Larry Londre.
In a subtle shift of marketing tactics, some retailers have stepped up coupon offers directed at their most loyal customers in a bid to attract repeat visits from big spenders during the holiday selling season. The coupons are not the type clipped from newspaper circulars -- though there are plenty of those to go around. They're the ones crammed into mailboxes or handed out with a purchase. Eager to wean themselves from discounts for the masses, retailers hope more targeted coupons will limit big bargains to a pool of their best customers
In anticipation of its upcoming 10-year anniversary, Monster is launching a brand campaign and new tagline, "Today's the Day." In addition, the company unveiled details about its 2004 marketing strategy. As part of its planned $125 million global marketing budget, the U.S. program includes TV, radio, print and online advertising, along with sponsorship and other non-traditional activities. The first 30-second spot, titled "Today," debuts on December 26th during the College Bowl Championship Series. The campaign's next 30-second spot will debut during Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1st, 2004.
Chad Oliveiri, managing editor of the Rochester, N.Y., AAN member publication, talks to editors of other alternative newsweeklies to anticipate how a new Gannett weekly, tentatively named The InsideR, could affect his market. Free weeklies the media giant has already launched in Boise and Cincinnati compete with AAN papers for advertising and promotional opportunities. The silver lining is that Gannett is selling large mainstream advertisers on the concept of appearing in free weeklies, Cincinnati CityBeat Editor John Fox says.
A reporter known for his environmental coverage expressed concern in an article last March that alternative newsweeklies were criticizing mainstream press coverage of the war but hadn't sent their own reporters to Iraq. "If you want to go, go," Coast Weekly Editor Eric Johnson told his reporter, Andrew Scutro. Scutro left for Iraq on Dec. 15.
Procter & Gamble Co. has tapped Publicis Groupe for what could be a $100 million campaign to get women more interested in sex.
Most publishers would like to soften New York's Local Law 23, which imposes fines for "dirty" news racks, and some contend the law is unconstitutional. Since last April, when enforcement began, the city's Department of Transportation has assessed more than 2,000 fines, totaling almost $1 million, Cynthia Cotts of the Village Voice reports. The burden is greatest for smaller businesses. New York Press publisher Charles Colletti says the weekly has received fines of almost $100,000 and has hired a cleaning contractor to comply with the law.
