Integrating many EZ Pay promotions

The Goal

The objective of The News and Observer, located in Raleigh, N.C. (165,400; 210,000) was to grow participation in the EZ Pay automatic renewal program to 20 percent by the end of 2004. They embarked on a fully integrated campaign that embedded EZ Pay in many aspects of the newspaper’s promotional platform.

The Story

In August 2003, The News and Observer initiated a comprehensive campaign to increase awareness of the EZ Pay automatic-renewal program with a new logo design, a series of ROP ads, strategically segmented bill inserts and an overhaul of all sales pieces to prominently feature this as the “preferred” payment option.

“By far our most successful promotion has been two complimentary movie tickets for any subscriber who signs onto EZ Pay.  We bartered 10,000 movie tickets from a company who operates three local Cineplex’s in exchange for 120,000 daily and 120,000 Sunday third-party copies, as well as promoting them in our collateral materials,” said Subscriber Services Manager Daniel L. Williams.

“We’ve offered numerous other premiums for subscribers who start or renew using EZ Pay:  a Reader Rewards card with values totaling $347 at nine local businesses, a Dunkin Donuts cards which offered a donut and cup of coffee free up to six times and complimentary tickets to various seasonal community events,” said Williams.

The primary challenge for The News and Observer was to increase awareness of the program, while also aggressively growing participation.  In focus groups conducted at the paper, a majority of readers were not aware that EZ Pay was offered. 

Another challenge was training customer service, retention and telemarketing representatives on the importance of always promoting EZ Pay as the preferred method of payment.

The success of the promotion was measured by tracking EZ Pay growth week over week.

Since January, EZ Pay participation has grown from 6.5 percent of the subscriber base to 11 percent at the end of June.  Also, two of the contracted telemarketing firms are now securing payment for 20 percent of all new orders, of which 60 percent are choosing EZ Pay.

The Moral of the Story

Making EZ Pay a pervasive aspect of the newspaper’s operations is key to achieving its full potential.