Ads work better next to edit or, even better, next to the table of contents Starch finds

Starch Advertising Research knows a thing or three about ad positions in magazines, gathered from looking at their own research conducted for publisher clients. They have recently done a study of adjacency, looking at nearly 68,000 ads  in 1,884 magazine issues Starch has measured from January 2009 through June 2010. (Its part of upgrading Starch's database so that clients can look back over time to see how positioning of an ad can vary by magazine type, specific magazine and ad sector.) In a Q & A with MediaPost, Mickey Galin, senior vice president outlined some of what they found out.

• Ads next to editorial, on average, are read by 51% of magazine readers compared to 46% of readers who noted ads adjacent to other ads -- an 11% lift. 
• Type of edit doesn't seem to have much impact -- except being placed next to a cover story or a relevant article (defined as one about the same subject). 
• Being placed next to a table of contents has a strong impact on readership resulted in an 8% difference in average readership, compared with ads next to other edit.  
• Ads next to TOC had a 28% readership lift compared with contents pages being next to another ad.
• Women's fashion and beauty magazines show no difference in average readership  
• Women's fashion and beauty books and bridal magazines show virtually no difference in average scores for ads opposite edit as opposed to ads opposite other ads. 
• But ads in business and finance books show an 18% lift in readership by being placed adjacent to an article as opposed to another ad. 

"Publishers can use this data to understand how their title or genre performs for different advertising categories and develop strategies from there." said Galin. "And to educate advertisers on the power of print. What other medium offers 50+ percent of ad recall on a consistent basis?"