Magazines Canada DM campaign sells 10,000 new subs

The 2007 cooperative direct marketing campaign of Magazines Canada got its participating members about 10,000 subscriptions, according to a recently released report. This was the second time that the organization went to market on behalf of participating member magazines; the first time was 2003. The campaign happened between January and March though subs continued to come in thereafter.

The offer to potential subscribers was "buy 2, get 1 free". It had been one of the options in the 2003 campaign and the one which drew best. This time around, 91% of respondents bought 3 titles. The offers were aimed at existing magazine buyers who were assumed to be predisposed towards reading more than one title.

9,419 net paid subscriptions were sold, a 46% increase over the 2003 campaign. It represents about an 0.8% response rate. 1.3 million promotional packages, representing 154 individual titles, was distributed by polybagged outsert with selected consumer magazines, by freestanding inserts in newspaper and through addressed and unaddressed admail.

• Cost per net sub was $42.72, down 57% from 2003
• Average pay up rate was 91%
• The average consumer spend per order for three magazines was $50+
• Large magazines took 49% of the total number of net subs*; French titles 28%; small English titles 11% (*while the big guys took half the subs, they also paid for more than half of the in-kind budget (1/3 of the total budget) and were charged 50% commission, which went against the costs of the over all project; smaller magazines paid no commission)
• The biggest draws by category were:
  
• family, home and fashion 37%
• French titles 27%
• Lifestyle and travel 14%
• Business, news and opinion 11%
• 57% of people responding to the direct mail package did so by mail, 25% on the web and 18% by telephone
• an opt-in mailing list was derived of qualified prospects for future campaigns
  

Magazines Canada says it would like to do such a campaign annually; it will depend on funding and willingness of participating magazines.

Congratulations to Magazines Canada staff and the volunteer direct mail committee: Michael Fox of Rogers, Darlene Storey (at that time at Transcontinental), Eithne McCredie of Abacus Circulation and Caroline Pacquet. Rogers Publishing Ltd. and Transcontinental Media made major contributions of advertising space and over all support. The project was supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, Cornerstone Group of Companies, the Ontario Media Development Corporation and Canada Post.

Anyone who wants a copy of the report can ask for one from Magazines Canada.