Magazines deliver excellent return on investment
In order to gain a better understanding of the link between magazine exposure and marketplace response, the PPA teamed up with Kantar Media (TNS) to test the relationship between the sales performance of 20 branded FMCG products and the media outlets used.
Aggregated results showed that the average sales value for the group exposed to magazine advertising increased by twice as much in comparison to the non-exposed group.
Following the start of the campaign, purchases by individuals seeing the magazine advertising jumped by 21.6%, while sales to those people not exposed rose by only 10%, showing that the magazine advertising sales effect generated an extra 11.6% increase in sales overall.
The average sales value for those exposed to magazine advertising was twice as high as for the non-exposed group
In nearly all cases, the magazine campaigns had a positive impact on sales. A total of 16 of the 20 magazine campaigns studied clearly showed a greater short-term boost in sales among the exposed group. For the top five performing campaigns, the additional sales uplift averaged 23.6%.
Examination of the 20 FMCG campaigns uncovers some important points about magazine advertising and optimising media spend.
Those campaigns that spent more than half the budget with magazines (including magazine-only campaigns) performed better than those which spent less than half with magazines.
The additional sales value gained by campaigns where magazine advertising accounted for the lion’s share of spend was 16.7%. In the case of those campaigns with less than 50% of the budget in magazines, the boost associated with the advertising was only 10.9%.
Thus, on average, the magazine-rich campaigns delivered an additional 5.8% of sales value. The resulting return on investment of magazine advertising averaged 79% or a return of £1.79 for every £1 spent within the campaign period. Over a 12 month period this figure rises to £2.77.
The study also demonstrated that the influence of advertising in magazines extends beyond sales uplift, helping advertisers to achieve a variety of marketing objectives, such as:
- increasing sales volume
- increasing average weekly purchase levels
- improving market share
- helping win new customers