Never wait for the media planner
Publimag's publishing conference sought answers to the question: "Customer magazines - pleasure or frustration?"
Publimag's publishing conference sought answers to the question: "Customer magazines - pleasure or frustration? "By Andreas Panzeri Since 1995, the number of customer magazines in German-speaking countries has grown from 1700 to over 3000. A total of 457 million copies are distributed today.
distributed per publication interval. "Are they also an interesting medium for advertising customers?" asked a panel discussion at the Publimag publishing conference.
Publimag estimates that there are over 400 customer magazines in Switzerland. "Two thirds of the largest 200 companies have such a magazine," explained Stefan Staub in his welcoming address at the Zurich Congress Center. The potential is far from exhausted, which is why new companies are constantly being founded that specialize exclusively in customer magazines.
For many publishers, such publications have long since become a second mainstay. The total circulation of customer magazines far exceeds that of the daily press. Does this mean that the secret heavyweight in the Swiss press is also an insider tip for media agencies?
Before Andy Lehmann from Mediahaus Seefeld gave a sobering analysis of this question, Ulrike Röttger from the Publizistische Institut at the University of Zurich first presented the results of a study on "The customer magazine in the Swiss media landscape".
According to their research, customer magazines are published on average 4.5 times a year. The first one was published in 1894 by the former Kreditanstalt. Today, most of them support the Internet in a cross-media system. "However, this interactive significance is still not sufficiently cultivated by most companies," says Röttger.
She also found that customer magazines are only taken seriously by the public if they have a utility value for the reader. They must be journalistically professional and should convey exclusive information or make general information "quicker and easier to receive". They can attract the most attention if they also address the negative aspects of developments in a journalistic manner instead of using an outdated PR concept to "gloss over positive end results".
Third-party advertisements are considered "ideal for refinancing" by most customer magazines. The company magazines believe they can offer a well-defined target audience.
Customer newspapers must proactively go to market
At this point at the latest, Andy Lehmann had to object that publishers of customer magazines should immediately forget the word "third-party advertisements". A well-placed advertisement should never feel "foreign" in a medium. Lehmann then demonstrated in a humorous way that even the idea of a clearly defined target audience for customer or membership media is far from being a source of joy for media planners.
The stamp collectors' magazine is clearly aimed at stamp collectors. However, these could range from retired bank managers to baked fish who collect stamps with butterfly motifs. The "target audience" of the Coop newspaper, which is distributed to 60 percent of all households, can be broken down into similar socio-demographic groups.
Lehmann therefore appealed to the publishers of customer magazines that they should first interpret the conference theme "Customer magazines - pleasure or frustration?" in the sense of "a lot of pleasure for work". In addition to a list of titles, media agencies primarily miss professionally usable data. "The big publishing houses offer much more service for their advertising customers," he says.
Finally, his most important piece of advice to the advertisement sellers of customer magazines is to become active themselves with potential advertisers and not wait for a media planner to call.
distributed per publication interval. "Are they also an interesting medium for advertising customers?" asked a panel discussion at the Publimag publishing conference.
Publimag estimates that there are over 400 customer magazines in Switzerland. "Two thirds of the largest 200 companies have such a magazine," explained Stefan Staub in his welcoming address at the Zurich Congress Center. The potential is far from exhausted, which is why new companies are constantly being founded that specialize exclusively in customer magazines.
For many publishers, such publications have long since become a second mainstay. The total circulation of customer magazines far exceeds that of the daily press. Does this mean that the secret heavyweight in the Swiss press is also an insider tip for media agencies?
Before Andy Lehmann from Mediahaus Seefeld gave a sobering analysis of this question, Ulrike Röttger from the Publizistische Institut at the University of Zurich first presented the results of a study on "The customer magazine in the Swiss media landscape".
According to their research, customer magazines are published on average 4.5 times a year. The first one was published in 1894 by the former Kreditanstalt. Today, most of them support the Internet in a cross-media system. "However, this interactive significance is still not sufficiently cultivated by most companies," says Röttger.
She also found that customer magazines are only taken seriously by the public if they have a utility value for the reader. They must be journalistically professional and should convey exclusive information or make general information "quicker and easier to receive". They can attract the most attention if they also address the negative aspects of developments in a journalistic manner instead of using an outdated PR concept to "gloss over positive end results".
Third-party advertisements are considered "ideal for refinancing" by most customer magazines. The company magazines believe they can offer a well-defined target audience.
Customer newspapers must proactively go to market
At this point at the latest, Andy Lehmann had to object that publishers of customer magazines should immediately forget the word "third-party advertisements". A well-placed advertisement should never feel "foreign" in a medium. Lehmann then demonstrated in a humorous way that even the idea of a clearly defined target audience for customer or membership media is far from being a source of joy for media planners.
The stamp collectors' magazine is clearly aimed at stamp collectors. However, these could range from retired bank managers to baked fish who collect stamps with butterfly motifs. The "target audience" of the Coop newspaper, which is distributed to 60 percent of all households, can be broken down into similar socio-demographic groups.
Lehmann therefore appealed to the publishers of customer magazines that they should first interpret the conference theme "Customer magazines - pleasure or frustration?" in the sense of "a lot of pleasure for work". In addition to a list of titles, media agencies primarily miss professionally usable data. "The big publishing houses offer much more service for their advertising customers," he says.
Finally, his most important piece of advice to the advertisement sellers of customer magazines is to become active themselves with potential advertisers and not wait for a media planner to call.
