Financial Title Hits The Street To Promote Subs - LITERALLY

Circulation Management, Sept, 2001

The Daily Deal spread its own news in June, when it took to the street-that is, Wall Street-for three weeks as part of a branding and circulation campaign that kicked off last fall.

The publication employed "newsboys," dressed in 1920's-Style costumes complete with knickers, suspenders and delivery bags bearing The Daily Deal logo, to hawk nearly 30,000 complimentary copies of the paper to its target audience: financiers and deal-makers in New York's financial district

Positioned outside of about 15 of the largest financial services companies, including Bear Sterns and Solomon Smith Barney, the newsboys wore sandwich boards promoting the most important "deal of the day" featured in the publication. The copies had cover wraps bearing coupons promoting a six-month subscription for $125, or 50 percent off the cover price.

Last September, the publication hired workers through the marketing firm The Hired Guns to don tee-shirts and caps with The Daily Deal logo and distribute 60,000 copies throughout New York over a six-week period.

The campaign's original goal was primarily branding, according to VP, circulation Jeff Hartford, who says he did not expect it to drive substantial numbers of new sub sales. But to Hartford's surprise and gratification, the campaign did indeed produce some volume. In fact, it helped increase paid orders by 50 percent, as compared to performance during the same six-week period in the previous year.

To attract more readers, as well as the press, the Deal wanted its June 2001 campaign to be even more attention-grabbing. In addition to wearing the newsboy outfits and actually handing out papers on the street, some of the workers hand-delivered copies to the offices of about 30 executives-some of whose companies were mentioned in a given issue of the publication. The executives included corporate communications chiefs, CEOs, presidents and CFOs. These copies were enveloped in clear plastic pouches and accompanied by a personalized letter from The Deal's president

With the help of this second leg of the campaign, paid sub orders jumped 60 percent for the month of June. Hartford adds that customer service inquiries by phone, fax and email also jumped, by 33 percent He hasn't broken out the numbers, but says he suspects this was due at least in part to promotion-generated queries about the magazine's content and price, as well as white-mail orders. The Deal plans to extend the campaign to London this month, where its U.K office is headquartered.

Similar campaigns might be a natural fit for city and regional titles or for paid business titles with highly concentrated segments of circulation, Hartford notes. "You just have to figure out where your readers are coming from," he says.

Oh, and one other point: Hartford cautions that it's wise to get permission from the proper authorities before you start having people hand out copies in public venues such as transportation terminals.