Playing Ball with Independent Retailers

The News-Herald (under 50,000 circ.) in Willoughby, Ohio ran a sports promotion that featured their minor league baseball team, the Lake County Captains and 30 locally owned and operated retail partners.

The objective was to increase the sales among the independently owned retail dealers through a competition that would award the participating store with the greatest sales to trend variance 16 luxury box tickets to a baseball game. In addition, the Captains provided single game tickets to award readers who were selected at random through a drawing. The entry forms were part of a ROP ad that listed the Captains and all the dealers as sponsors. The participating locations were named and organized by city/town in the paper to simplify the entry process and drive readers into those locations. Furthermore, co-branded POP was displayed at all of the participating locations to draw reader interest and increase visibility throughout the market as well as promote the Class A team.

The program ran for six weeks with the ad appearing in The News-Herald two to three times per week. Sales increased through myriad marketing initiatives including suggestive selling by store clerks, additional display units and more recovery efforts by The News-Herald staff.

Nearly 600 entry forms were received with many coming from non-subscribers that could be marketed to through telemarketing and direct mail at a later date. The News-Journal saw a composite 3.25 percent increase (growth to trend) across all participating locations and have created a strong relationship with the Captains and many of the dealers. Perhaps more significant, based on the fact that additional locations lead to an increased sales, the newspaper was able to maintain many of the secondary display positions within the retail outlets. The winning store increased sales by more than 25 percent against trend during the promotional period.

Idea from OCMA Conference, submitted by Ian Bowman, single copy manager, The News-Herald

Written by Robert L. Rubrecht, Director/Circulation Marketing, NAA

First Published:
October 16, 2008