DCP Dialogue

Sports Custom Content That Stands Out

With an abundance of sports coverage easily accessible across mainstream media, why do sports organizations develop their own custom content programs? There are several good answers to this question that Barry Janoff discusses in his article, Sports Custom Content: The Fans are the Stars, published in the latest issue of Content magazine.

This article talks about several sports teams but I pulled quotes below that relate to one of DCP’s major sports clients, the San Francisco Giants.

The main goal behind sports custom content is to keep loyal fans rooting for their teams. How is that accomplished?

1. Provide “more nuanced, more intimate” access to players and teams.

“Information is everywhere, and much of it is free,” says Mario Alioto, Giants senior vice president of corporate marketing. “We have access and information about our players that other media don’t have.”

2. Give fans an opportunity to share their stories.

“It’s one thing to have a magazine that interests fans, but the best kind of content marketing is when people feel they are part of it,” says Jeff Gire, senior editor at Diablo Custom Publishing. “The team wanted Giants Magazine to have stories that involved the fans.” As a result, we created a new section, “Our Fan Story”, which gives fans a place to share personal stories about the Giants.

Be sure to read the article to get the whole story.

Consumers Still Prefer Print Magazines

Take a look at this very interesting whitepaper, Leveraging Loyalty to Transform Publishing, produced by the CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions. It addresses “The Impact of Relevance in Publishing and Advertising.”

I recommend downloading this 12-page whitepaper that includes the detailed findings about what people want from their magazines. It confirms what we all believe is most essential—relevance.

Here's some info pulled from the first page of the whitepaper.

“To get a clear picture of what opportunities might exist for publications transformation, the CMO Council asked consumers what they wanted from their magazine experience.

The audit revealed that consumers do not want to give up their cherished print publications, and further that their experiences within these preferred pages has shaped and molded their buying decisions.

In a world where the internet threatens to change the face of loyalty—offering new and exciting real-time connections—magazines seem to be the one constant that consumers are not ready to relinquish. According to our survey:

92 percent plan to stick to print when it comes to their magazine consumption

Only 24 percent intend to eventually switch over to some form of e-reader device

The real message consumers want to send to publishers is keep the content relevant, be it editorial, advertorial, or advertising. But, well placed, content rich and even personalized advertising will lead to new opportunities (and even renewed opportunities) for profitable customer engagements."

Click here to download the whitepaper and read the detailed findings of the online consumer survey.

Introducing John Rodenburg, Director of Custom Media

Diablo Custom Publishing (DCP) is excited to announce that John Rodenburg has joined our organization as the Director of Custom Media. John previously held the position of Vice President and Publisher of Travel and Leisure Golf for American Express Publishing. As a long time veteran of Time Inc., John held several senior positions at Sports Illustrated, including the Associate Publisher of Marketing and Associate Publisher of Sales. Prior to moving to New York in 2000, John was the Northwest Advertising Director at Sports Illustrated and a resident of the East Bay.

Barney Fonzi, Group Publisher for Diablo Publications comments, “John’s background makes him the perfect addition to our team, and we welcome his seasoned experience, strong business development skills, energy and business acumen. We are confident that John will be able to leverage his proven strategies that have worked in his past endeavors, as well as his entrepreneurial forward thinking.” 

Speaking about his new role, John said, “I’m very excited about returning home to the Bay Area, and I’m equally excited about the opportunity to share my experience to help DCP reach new heights by leveraging their great reputation and brand, their diverse client portfolio of top notch work and their talented team of professionals. DCP is poised for growth and I’m excited to be a part of this expansion.”

In the next month, expect to see a blog entry from John summarizing his outlook for the Custom Media market.

Content Marketing Rises to $47 Billion in 2009

According to a new survey from the Custom Content Council (CCC), U.S. corporations spent a record $47.2 billion on branded content last year. The 10th annual industry “Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Content Marketing in America for 2010” includes the study of electronic and other forms of content marketing for the first time—which explains the significant increase in spending from 2008.

This year’s study reveals that 32% of the overall marketing, advertising and communications budget were dedicated to content marketing. This is the greatest-ever proportion of funds dedicated to content marketing in the 10-year history of this study.

What does this mean?

Marketing organizations recognize the need to communicate regularly with their audience and provide them with meaningful content. Marketing today is not as much about flashy marketing campaigns as it is about constant interaction and sharing of relevant information with a targeted audience. Since today’s consumers make highly educated decisions, marketing organizations need to play a key role in the transfer of knowledge and participate in their consumers’ decision-making process. The more valuable content an organization provides, the more likely they will build and grow a loyal customer base.

How are companies communicating with their audience today?

Custom Magazines/Newsletters Still Strong:

• In 2009, average circulation per issue increased to an all-time high of 48,162 copies per issue.
• The number of unique printed custom publication titles decreased from 1.9 in 2008 to 1.7 in 2009. That said, those titles published increased in both page count and circulation.

Other Forms of Branded Content:

• The most common other forms being used are website updates of articles, blog post and e-newsletters.
• The least common are mobile and e-zines such as flipbooks and interactive PDFs.

What marketing vehicles are companies expecting to add in the future?
While mobile content is not yet widely used, it does rank as the medium that most marketers believe they are likely to invest in next year. Beyond that, marketers plan to invest in video and audio.

Custom Content Council Executive Director Lori Rosen said, “As more and more companies explore custom content solutions across print and digital platforms, we will continue to see an increased financial investment. Things are changing rapidly—the data shows just how much change the industry has undergone in 12 months-and we haven’t even touched social media surface. Next year we will be measuring Twitter, Facebook and more. It’s an exciting time to be involved in content marketing in all its forms.”

New Director of Marketing at Diablo Publications

Diablo Publications is pleased to announce that Dave Reik has joined our management team as Director of Marketing. Dave will be leading the marketing efforts for both Diablo Magazine and the Diablo Custom Publishing (DCP) division.

Dave was previously with Penton Media, where he held the position of Director of Audience Marketing and Business Development for Mix, Electronic Musician, Remix and Music Education Technology magazines, as well as their online properties and events. As a key member of Penton's senior team, Dave led the marketing and business development activities for both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sectors.

We asked Dave four questions relating to what he hopes to accomplish at Diablo Publications and how he intends to get up-to-speed in his new role. Here’s what he had to say…

Q: First, what intrigued you to join Diablo Publications?

A: One of the many compelling reasons to join Diablo Publications for me is their continued commitment to excellence from Diablo magazine, as well as DCP's extensive and impressive list of prestigious customers.

As an active member of the East Bay community for over 10 years, I’ve admired this high-profile publication and wanted to be a part of it. Now I look forward to getting involved with our readers and business community and sharing Diablo Publications’ message more broadly to help fuel the company's continued successes. I’m thrilled to be leading the next stage in the comprehensive marketing strategy for Diablo Publications.

Q: What are the initial steps you took to get acclimated as the new marketing director?

A: I started off by meeting with the strategic management team to understand each of their needs and to get a sense of the company’s 30+ year history. My goal was to get a true, firm understanding of the company’s business model. Then I reviewed the existing marketing collateral with the sales team and filled some gaps. After reviewing the internal systems, I was able to make a few quick efficiency enhancements to our web programming processes. I also researched the competitive environment for Diablo magazine and for custom publishing. My intent over the past six weeks was to get a sense of where we’ve come from and identify where we should be going.

Q: What do you see as your biggest opportunities in the near term?

A:  I can envision many ways to expand our customer base by targeting local companies that have a need for custom publishing and for building awareness of their brands. I anticipate there will be a variety of public relations opportunities with local media that will help us get the word out about Diablo and DCP. And our team is working diligently on providing extensive online applications to help our advertisers and partners achieve higher ROI. We plan to leverage new forms of media (i.e. video, podcast, social media, mobile devices) to discover new customers, as well as help our clients communicate with people they haven’t been able to reach.

Q: Where will you focus your marketing resources to achieve the greatest gains?

A: To start with, I plan to leverage our third-party partners. I’m exploring ways to get the most out of our existing relationships and I will be looking to form new partnerships that will help us quickly expand our new media offerings and provide our clients with a broader set of services.

Ready For Some Upbeat Marketing News, For A Change?

Are you tired of all the negative business reports from 2009? “Marketing budgets are slashed.” “Print is dead.” I’m sure you’ve heard them all.

Read these two brief articles for some very encouraging news regarding the record growth in the custom media business.

• Minonline: Custom Content Has Best Year Ever
• Publishing Executive: Custom Media Spend Rises to an All-time High

The bottom line is marketers invested more money in branded content in 2009 than ever before (two times as much as in 2008) and 51 percent of that money was used to create print publications, according to a recent survey.

So let’s celebrate the good news and look forward to a prosperous 2010.

Custom Media Market Reflects Consumers’ Positive Response

A few weeks ago, Jim Offel reported on the encouraging findings from a recent study by Roper Public Affairs of consumer attitudes to custom media and the organizations that provide them. One of the study’s most interesting conclusions was that 68% of consumers who read custom publications say it helps them make better purchasing decisions. Then last week, Dennis Cook blogged on how this study revealed that custom publications influence consumers’ perceptions of hospitals in a very positive way.

Now you may wonder…do corporate and hospital marketing investments mirror this upbeat consumer response? According to another recent study from the Custom Publishing Council (CPC), in cooperation with ContentWise —“Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Custom Publications in America,” the answer is definitely yes.

This study finds that the custom publishing industry remains strong, amid the economic downturn and the challenges facing consumer media. The results reveal that circulation has skyrocketed, pages per issue have increased, and issue frequency has held steady.

Some of the key findings:

Circulation: The average circulation per issue increased from 30,044 in 2007 to 37,340 in 2008. The average circulation per title increased from 270,000 in 2007 to 336,060 in 2008. The total number of custom publication copies distributed increased 7.4 percent from 2007 to 2008.

Pages Per Issue: The average pages per issue for custom publications increased from 22.2 to 23.2. Since 1999, the number of pages per issue has grown 68.1%.

Frequency: The average annual frequency of custom publications remained steady at 9 times per year.

Online:  The use of online publications increased from 18 to 22 percent between 2007 and 2008.

Email us at info@dcpubs.com if you want to learn more about the findings of these studies and what they mean for your organization.

Roper Study Addresses Effectiveness of Hospital Publications

Consumer newsletters continue to be very popular among hospitals in their campaigns to boost awareness of brand and service-line specialties. Like everybody else, hospital marketing directors have to justify the ROI of their campaigns. Fortunately, in this current environment when spending on all forms of advertising is down, newsletter marketing programs remain viable. How do we know that?

 

A recent study by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media suggests some of the answers. This study was conducted during February and March 2009, and represents an update of the group’s original survey conducted in 2005. Both studies looked at consumer recognition and opinion about custom magazines and newsletters from sponsors in several industries – healthcare and hospitals among them.

 

Some of the more interesting findings for hospitals include:
 

·        62% of recipients report looking at the hospital custom publication they receive often, with more than one quarter looking at it every time it arrives (27%) and one-third (35%) looking at it most of the time.

 

·        56% of respondents who receive hospital publications indicate they are very satisfied with hospital quality of care, while only 36% of respondents who don’t receive hospital publications indicate they are very satisfied.

 

·        58% of respondents who receive hospital publications indicate they are very likely to recommend hospital to others (an increase of 8% from 2005) while only 36% of those who do not receive hospital publications indicate they are very likely to recommend a hospital.

 

What does this mean? Publication marketing programs work. They deliver meaningful and useful information that consumers find valuable. And they influence consumers’ perception of the hospital in a very positive way. That’s why newsletters continue to be popular for hospitals.

Of course, the pressure to do more with less has never been higher. For hospital marketing directors who see the value in custom publishing programs but have to reduce overall budgets, the key is in carefully profiling and pinpointing the most receptive audience. Strategic targeting allows you to keep labor, manufacturing, and postage costs down. At the same time, focusing on service lines with the highest margin and driving traffic to those programs first is key. Custom publications can help you do that.

New Roper Study on Consumers Attitudes Towards Custom Publications

While hand-wringing amongst those of us in the marketing business tends to intensify during down economic cycles, some recent studies suggest that marketers would be well-advised to think carefully before reducing or eliminating their custom media programs.

A recent study by Roper Public Affairs (Americans’ Relationship with Custom Publications and the Companies that Provide Them) that follows up a 2005 study of consumer attitudes has consumers maintaining or improving on measures of positive reaction to custom media and the organizations that provide them.  (Articles citing the new study can be found at Folio Magazine, Media Post, and DMNews).

Among the findings:

•  More than two-thirds of consumers surveyed (68%) say that companies that provide information about their products in these publication help them make better purchase decisions – a six-point increase since the 2005 study.

•  Nearly eight in ten consumers say that custom publications demonstrate that companies are interested in building good relationship with consumers, and more than six in ten say that they feel better about the company when they’re reading the publications the company has provided.

•  Seventy-four per cent of consumers said they would rather get information about a company from a custom publication than from advertising.

While there’s no question that many marketers have scaled back their advertising and marketing budgets, consumers remain interested in and responsive to the use of branded content and organizations taking the “long view” might want to take this into consideration when planning for 2010.

Embracing Sustainability

Hard to imagine a year ago I was taking a photo of a co-worker posing from inside a trash dumpster for our first ever Green edition of our in-house newsletter the Worker Bee. Why did we pose Don in the dumpster? Simple, we had been conducting periodic dumpster dives in our own trash to see if the recycling was getting recycled and the trash was truly trash – its was all part of our efforts to incorporate and promote green practices within our organization.

Fast forward to this past Wednesday (Earth Day) to a meeting with our executive team and a team from the Green MBA (Dominican University, San Rafael, CA).  For the past 4 months, Diablo Publications has sponsored a project in conjunction with Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to determine our status in qualifying for a Green Business Certification. Last week we received the final report detailing the results and recommendations for completion.

The ABAG certification will provide the foundation we are looking for to align our continuous improving green management policies with recognized best practices in solid waste and recycling, energy consumption, water conservation and pollution prevention. As a result of the project, we now know where we stand, and what steps we need to take in order to qualify for certification. We will keep you posted when we officially achieve this goal!

In addition to exploring our internal sustainable initiatives we are also committed to working with vendors who utilize best green practices. Because of this we can offer print products that are produced using FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified paper; chlorine-free recycled paper; and soy based ink printing.  We are committed not just to the clients who demand these attributes for their pieces, but we also commit to educating our existing clients on this topic as well.

We have come a long way since dumpster diving a year ago and I am proud to say that DCP understands the value of the overall commitment to sustainability and its lasting impact on future generations. We embrace our role as an industry and community leader and take responsibility for our part.