Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Brings Customers Back

PODi
CASE
STUDY
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
BRINGS CUSTOMERS BACK
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Brings Customers Back
2
Project:
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Brings Customers Back
Vertical Market:
Publishing
Business Application:
Direct Marketing/Direct Order
Business Objectives
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a daily newspaper reaching more than
600,000 people throughout the state. The newspaper industry as a whole is
struggling with declining subscriptions and readership. The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette wanted to encourage patrons who recently ended their
newspaper subscriptions to renew.
Previous campaigns to this audience utilized static direct mail postcards and
form letters with bland design concepts. These efforts were returning less
than a 1% response rate.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette needed a campaign that would:

Improve the response rate among previous customers

Increase subscriptions

Reduce the cost of securing returning subscribers
Results
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s service provider, proposed a cross-media
campaign utilizing targeted and personalized marketing techniques. The
campaign ran for three months. A response was considered someone who
renewed their subscription.

July 2010 – 1.5% response rate

August 2010 – 2.0% response rate

September 2010 – 2.0% response rate
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was very happy with results, especially
considering the difficult audience that was being targeted – people who had
already said “no” to the paper.
Campaign Architecture
The campaign was based on four different postcards with varying designs
and offers targeting people who had recently canceled their newspaper
subscription. Two of the designs addressed Sunday-only subscribers and the
other two focused on daily subscribers.
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Daily paper promotion
– football theme
Sunday paper promotion
– newspaper theme
The postcards gave recipients two options to respond and take advantage of
special pricing – visiting a Personalized URL or calling a toll-free number
with a special offer code. These two response vehicles allowed campaign
results to be easily tracked. This was an important consideration for the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since it had been difficult to track results of
previous campaigns.
Four different online micro-sites were designed to fit the art and offer for
each postcard version. Upon entering the micro-site, visitors could view a
short video of Wally Hall, a well-known sports editor and commentator.
Visitors were also asked to complete a short survey to register for a free prize
drawing. The survey gathered information about visitors’ favorite newspaper
section and their use of the Classified section. Ninety-nine percent of visitors
who completed the online survey renewed their subscription.
© 2011 PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Brings Customers Back
4
Individuals who were interested in renewing their subscription
were taken from the micro-site to the newspaper’s own online
subscription pages which were designed to fit the look and feel of
the direct mail campaign.
Target Audience and Messaging
The postcards for the Sunday and daily subscriptions had different
message versions.



One version stressed the affordability
of the subscription
A second version focused on the
paper’s comprehensive coverage of
college football which has a strong
following in Arkansas
A third version highlighted the
comprehensive news coverage of the
paper
The intent was to measure the effectiveness of the different versions and use
the best performing message/creative in subsequent campaigns. However
the response rates for each version were close to equal.
Offer
Recipients were offered a reduced subscription price. On top of the pricing
incentive, recipients were encouraged to visit their Personalized URL to
register for a $500 grand prize drawing.
List
The database for this campaign came from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s
house list of previous subscribers. The list was segmented to distinguish
former Sunday-only subscribers from daily subscribers and therefore focus
the message, the content, and the art around this specific segment.
Creative and Outbound Piece
All of the creative for the campaign was developed by their service provider.
The postcard versions focusing on the affordability of the paper highlighted
that the paper could be delivered for less than the cost of a can of soda. The
version highlighting the coverage of the paper was designed to look like the
front page of a paper and called out the subscriber’s name in the headline.
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The postcards highlighting the paper’s football coverage featured an image
of a football on a grass field. To increase the impact of this design the card
was given a dimensional feel through the selective application of a clearcolor coating. The clear-coat was printed on the dimples of the football and
on the blades of grass. This gave the postcard a raised, tactile feel that added
to its interest.
Reasons for Success
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette successfully won back customers with this
cross-media campaign.
Best practices learned from this campaign are:



Measure results accurately. Having tracking mechanisms in place is
critical to determining the success of a campaign. In this case the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette could track online responses through the
use of Personalized URLs and telephone responses through the use of the
offer code.
Understand your customers. Through the online survey the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette learned valuable information about their subscribers’
interests and their use of the paper.
Use compelling creative. The creative in this campaign was bold
enough to gain the attention of recipients but it also supported the
overall message of the marketing.
Football themed landing page
© 2011 PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative
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