Virtual Seminar entitled: “Why Insert media Matters more than Ever Before”

Speaker: Rob Stanton, VP, Business Development. Stanton Direct Marketing Held on Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Before is information from our speaker regarding the Seminar…

Thank you very much for attending the Virtual Seminar on Insert Media. This was Insert Media’s (and my) first Virtual Seminar presentation, so please let me know if you need clarity on anything I discussed. It’s important to me that this information represents a good value to you.

Below are two links: One to the PowerPoint and one to the Vertis study that I referenced.

PowerPoint:

Notes pertaining to the PowerPoint presentation:

Vertis Study:

Q & A Corner:

These are the questions and answers received at the end of the presentation.

Question: Why is negative ROI expected on the test?

Answer: Because of the unit costs. A test program may only require 25,000 to 100,000 inserts. Have 100,000- 300,000 inserts printed for the test program will be much higher than printing three or four times that amount for a roll-out (printing represents the largest scale savings). Freight will also be significantly impacted, as well (initial test quantities may be sent through a more expensive commercial carrier – like UPS. Large quantities will be moved much more competitively through a freight broker). The insertion rate (rate for the space) can drop 30-50% from test to substantial circulation.

The main goal of testing is getting reasonable results with minimal expense.

Question: Are there B2B best practices?

Answer: There are some general rules, but it may depend on the product and offer - - this may drive approach more than program choices. The first thing to keep in mind is that you truly want a business file - - and particularly a small business file (assumedly). If an insert is mailing in something to a company with more than 20 employees, the insert is not likely to reach the decision maker or business owner. Some B2B files are really a hybrid of business delivery addresses and residential delivery addresses. In my opinion this is fine if the business offer is general enough. If it’s more targeted to an industry type, options might be limited.

A second tier approach would be to look at programs that have a strong affinity with B2B, such as those that reach travelers or golfers, etc. Again, depends on specific offer.

A good broker will be able to provide a list of B2B programs in the marketplace and a list of other B2B advertisers that have been in those programs, as well as physical samples of other B2B offers.

Question: What is the size of the Insert Industry?

Answer: The DMA’s figures on advertising spend for Insert Media is expected to be around 1 billion dollars in 2008, however this may not reflect the overall economic impact of the channel. As far as circulation potential? I’m not sure. Some estimates put the number of programs on the marketplace at 1,500 to 2,000 insert program opportunities. There is no clear answer on how much circulation there is, but many of the largest insert advertisers run annual campaigns that may include 100 -200 million inserts.

Question: Is Insert Media based on a CPM structure or are other types of arrangements accepted?

Answer: Insert Media is generally set-up on a cost per thousand model. This is because there are real costs involved for the program owner to handle and include insert material in their mailings. There need to be some guarantee that these costs are covered. Cost per Acquisition arrangements might be considered if a program has healthy participation and the CPA payout is attractive to the program owner (i.e. high dollar amount bounties). CPA arrangements will also be considered on some properties, such as collation envelopes, were the production cost is the same with or without advertising.

That said, it’s important to focus on finding quality Insert opportunities that create a return and not the cheapest. Allocating a budget to test the right insert programs will produce healthy results than looking at only CPA opportunities that may produce mediocre results. The bottom-line is not how much a program costs, but the results they produce. If a campaign is positive on its ROI, the cost is almost irrelevant.

Feel free to reply with questions to:

Rob Stanton, VP, Business Development
Stanton Direct Marketing, Inc.
315 W. Water Street, Elmira, NY 14901-2914
P: 607-734-4571 E: Rob.Stanton@StantonDirect.com

If you want to find out more about the Insert Media council and its membership, go to: http://www.the-dma.org/councils/insertcouncil/ or contact Susan Zuniga at 212-768-7277 Ext. 1568 – Email: szuniga@the-dma.org

Thank you to the sponsor of this Insert Media Virtual Seminar: Solar Communications! Your sponsorship is greatly appreciated! http://www.solarcommunications.com/