Q: What is best practice now?
A: There are six key aspects to consider:
• Audience profiling & alignment: Effective targeted placement requires skill, established relationships, and detailed knowledge of a wide range of distribution channels. Your chosen distributor must reach not only the targeted readers for the publication, but also the audience that meets their advertiser’s objectives too. Understanding the demographic profile of each channel is therefore essential. It is not enough to tell an advertiser that a publication is distributed in five-star hotels or corporate offices; they need to know the demographic profiles of who will be visiting these venues. Is a modern fintech headquarters full of entrepreneurial and affluent Gen Z employees the right fit, or would a long-established banking headquarters with wealthy millennials working there be more appropriate? It’s vital to recognise these subtle but significant differences in audience profiling.
• Trusted relationships with distribution channels: Your specialist distributor must be able to demonstrate strong, trusted relationships within the channels they recommend, whether that be five-star hotels, airport lounges, rail operators, private medical facilities, corporate headquarters or other relevant venues. Without these relationships, they are not a bona fide specialist distributor, but simply a courier with a list of locations. Anyone can put magazines in a box and send them to venues in the hope they will be used, but unsolicited publications are often discarded or recycled. A genuine specialist distributor invests in long-standing relationships, often built over many years, and should be connected to the official industry bodies within their chosen channels.
• Open up new distribution channels: As audience reading habits evolve, publishers must continue to explore new channels. Two years ago, the reader of a health magazine might logically have been found in a gym; today, that same reader may be more likely to be found at a padel court or a zero-gravity Pilates class.
• Verification, validation & certification: The distribution channels and methods used by a distributor must be robust and independently audited by a trusted industry body such as ABC. Publishers should also ensure their distribution partner has invested in recognised sustainability credentials, such as ISO 14001 certification.
• Branding & compliance: Popular distribution points for specialist media include corporate headquarters, airport gates, airport lounges and rail terminals. These locations allow distributors to create high-impact, branded distribution points in high-traffic areas, giving readers access to a carefully selected range of relevant publications.
• Campaign planning, execution, ROI: A good specialist distributor can quickly become a valuable commercial partner. Work with them closely and collaboratively: their insight should help you secure valuable advertising revenue.
Q: How do you see it changing in the future?
A: Transparency, trust and due diligence are now seen by most publishers as essential elements when choosing their specialist distribution partner. The old “dump, run and hope” model, where excessive waste was used to secure a high ABC figure, is thankfully being relegated to the dark ages. Print publishers need to be commercially sharp to thrive in this market. Reading and purchasing habits continue to change, every printed copy must be accounted for and shown to have reached the intended audience.
Print is enjoying a renewed appeal as consumers seek to digitally detox and step away from screens. This has helped drive a resurgence in creative specialist magazines, with readers increasingly viewing print as a luxury product they expect to encounter in places such as five-star hotel rooms, luxury spas and airport lounges.
New distribution channels will continue to emerge and evolve, allowing publishers to combine print with digital activity and give advertisers greater reach and impact. For example, print media racks in airport lounges or corporate headquarters can enable publishers to run print distribution alongside digital video advertising in the same location.
Reaching affluent, influential and elusive audiences will remain a key objective for many publishers and advertisers. This will require increasingly creative ways to access them, but the simplest methods should not be overlooked. For example, the best way to place a luxury magazine on a superyacht in Monaco Harbour during the Grand Prix may still be through someone in a rowing boat who has strong relationships with the yacht captains. The skill lies in knowing the guy with the rowing boat and having access to those relationships.
Q: What are your three top tips?
1. Build a strong, collaborative relationship with your distributor, based on trust and mutual understanding. They need to understand your objectives fully if they are to deliver the audience and results you are targeting.
2. Do not leave distribution planning until the last minute or treat it as an afterthought. A beautifully edited and produced magazine has little value without a detailed, robust and focused distribution plan and the ability to deliver it.
3. Keep looking for innovative ways to engage your audience. Events, whether global or local, are often overlooked as opportunities to reach targeted readers. When executed well, they can deliver exceptional engagement. Advertisers are often keen to support events that bring concentrated, relevant audiences together in one place, and a cover-wrapped, sponsored publication can become a valuable addition to a publisher’s commercial model.
About Gold Key Media
Gold Key Media has delivered innovative and targeted placement solutions for publishers for over 25 years, specialising in audience engagement and sampling programmes across the UK, Europe, USA, and the Middle East. We represent a wide range of global publishers, sampling and selling over 40 million newspapers and magazines per annum, helping publishers to improve their revenue streams and audience reach.
Email: chris.horn@gkml.co.uk
Website: www.gkml.co.uk
This article was first published in Issue # 1 of Best Practice in Publishing, a new publication from InPublishing. Click here for links to the other ‘best practice’ articles from the publication.
