New Research: What Influences Agency Media Buyer Decision-Making?

Association Media & Publishing's Sidebar blog interviews Lindsay Morrison, VP of Marketing Communications at Kantar Media SRDS & Healthcare Research, a group that collects, organizes, and delivers advertising data to connect media buyers with media sellers.

SRDS recently teamed up with AM&P member James G. Elliott Co., Inc. on an important new market research study designed to understand the information needs of media planners and buyers at advertising agencies. What follows are some of the surprising results of this study, which was conducted in Q4 2013 and included 204 individual respondents.  Here's an excerpt:

Sidebar: What are some of the surprises gleaned from your recent survey of advertising agencies?

Morrison: One of the more interesting is that there are an increasing number of media buyers who are planning and buying advertising schedules all year long, as opposed to the more traditional pattern of planning and buying your advertising in the fall for the coming year and then being done with it. In our survey, 63 percent of the media buyers said they are buying schedules sporadically, quarterly, or semi-annually.

Read the full interview here:

http://associationmediaandpublishing.org/sidebar/New-Research-What-Influences-Agency-Media-Buyer-Decision-Making?

Jim Elliott Elected to AM&P Board of Directors

Jim Elliott has been elected to the 2014-2015 Board of Directors of Association Media & Publishing (AM&P).​ As a longtime member of AM&P, a frequent writer for Signature Magazine and Blurb, AM&P's blog, he looks forward to ​contributing to the organization in this new role.

​For more than 30 years, Association Media and Publishing, ​formerly known as the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP), has served the professionals and publications that educate, inform and engage members of trade and membership associations.

Association Media & Publishing’s 2014 Annual Meeting ​will be held May 19–21, at the Sheraton Premiere, Tysons Corner, VA. ​http://associationmediaandpublishing.org/​ 

Current Trends in Media Planning and Buying Revealed

New research from Kantar SRDS and the James G. Elliott Co., Inc. now being released  illuminates factors that affect the way media is planned and bought today.  Samir "Mr. Magazine™" Husni's video interview with Steve Davis and Jim Elliott, presidents of the sponsoring companies, will help viewers see how they can increase ad sales revenues by applying these findings and selling the way today's buyers want to be sold.

You can get a copy of the full study by filling out the form on the left.

Read more about it in our latest issue of Ads and Ideas: /ads-ideas/2014/3/19/how-agencies-plan-and-buy-today.html

More buzz about this study:

Mr. Magazine's™ Blog:  http://mrmagazine.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/when-in-comes-to-ads-ad-agencies-and-ad-sales-today-mad-men-dont-exist-the-mr-magazine-interview-with-stephen-davis-and-james-g-elliott/

Ambro.com: http://www.ambro.com/how-to-sell-advertising-know-your-customer/

Pulling Back the Curtain on Rate Base Inflation

Over at Publishing Executive's website (pubexec.com), Bo Sacks takes on Rate Base and asks industry leaders (including Jim Elliott) for their take on it.  An excerpt:

"From my perspective, rate base is a convoluted tool designed to produce distorted circulation figures. Yes, auditing is an attempt to verify with some precision and prove to the advertisers that a certain number of people may have picked up and read your magazine. But imbedded in this arcane system is a potential for trickery and a temptation to abuse the well-meaning audit results to achieve what amounts to some meaningless readership number."

You can read the rest here: http://www.pubexec.com/article/pulling-back-the-curtain-rate-base-inflation/1

RFP for ad sales? Not necessarily a good idea

Association Media & Publishing / By Carla Kalogeridis 

Sidebar Newsletter of February 13, 2014 from Association Media & Publishing, carries an interview with Jim Elliott. Jim shares ideas to help associations improve the search process when they are looking for new ad sales representation. Even when use of an RFP is mandated, some preliminary research can help publishers save time by narrowing the field to firms that have the right chemistry, capabilities and interest-level.  Read it in full here:

http://associationmediaandpublishing.org/sidebar/RFP-for-Ad-Sales-Not-Necessarily-a-Good-Idea?&Sort=

See highlights of the 2013 Folio: MediaNext Show

The Folio: MediaNext Show held in New York October 20-22, 2013 was packed with information useful to members of the publishing community.  A complete guide to all of the events are available here, with links to many of the individual presentations. Jim Elliott's presentation, The One Constant in Media Sales: Disruption, can be viewed in its entirety here.

ACT 4: Publishing industry event hosted by "Mr. Magazine"

In November 2013, Dr. Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni once again hosted the annual ACT event for the publishing industry at Ole Miss. 

At ACT 4, speakers included such luminaries as Billy Morris, CEO of Morris Communications, Donna Kessler, President of Morris Media Networks (publishers of 65,000,000 circulation Where Magazine) and prominent M&A advisor Reed Phillips of Desilva+Phillips, interviewed by Jim Elliott. See Jim Elliott's interview with Reed Phillips here: 

"How Magazine Publishers are Creating Value for Their Companies in the Digital Age"

Reed Phillips, CEO and Managing Partner, Desilva + Phillips
Jim Elliott, CEO, The James G. Elliott Co., Inc.
The Power of Print Integrated
Magazine Innovation Center, The University of Mississippi

See what BoSacks had to say about ACT 4 immediately afterward: conta.cc/HQp72T

The Power of Print in Finland

On April 23, Jim Elliott was honored to deliver the presentation,"The Power of Print in the Digital Age," to many advertisers and staff of Otavamedia Oy, one of Finland's largest publishing houses.  The Finns are avid magazine readers and consumers: Finland has the highest percentage in the world of magazines delivered by subscription. "We have much to learn in the US from the Finns about magazines, particularly on the circulation side of our business" was Jim Elliott's reaction after his visit. More on this visit in the next newsletter.

Act 3 Experience

On October 24, Jim Elliott and Bill Pollak, former CEO of both ALM and the ABM, delivered the presentation, "What is the Power of Print in Today's Advertising & Sponsorship Environment," to publishing executives attending Magazine Innovation Center's ACT 3 Experience, hosted by Dr. Samir Husni, "Mr. Magazine," at the University of Mississippi. You can view Jim and Bill's presentation below or go to http://blip.tv/mcast to see more from the Act 3 Experience.

 Click to download a .pdf file of presentation. 

NATURE CONSERVANCY Magazine Will Accept Its First Advertising in 2013

From min's 10/8/2012 issue:

Excerpts: “ ‘The reason is practical,’ says … publisher/editorial director Teresa Duran, who recently switched to the business side after serving nine years as editor-in-chief. ‘We want to direct our members' fees … to conservation—which is our mission—rather than paying to produce a magazine.’”

 “Duran calls the parent Nature Conservancy ‘a big tent that is nonpartisan and nonconfrontational. We work with private landowners, corporations, and the government. For example, with BP, we worked to ensure that its …well settings in the West would not go in places that were harmful to species in their habitat. And, in the aftermath of the [2010] spillage in the Gulf of Mexico, we were a huge advocate of getting funds from BP and others directed back to the Gulf states for restoration work and conservation work.’”

 “ ‘We've protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide and we operate more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.’”

 “ ‘We won't allow anything from 'extractive industries,' meaning oil and gas….  Gambling is not allowed either…..’”

 “…Leading the sales effort is New York-based James G. Elliott Co. general manager…Dennis Connaughton (Field & Stream publisher during the 1990s).”

Note:  Four-color page rate is $55,250 on 650,000. 

First issue with advertising is March/April 2013

FOLIO: Saturday Evening Post Outsources Sales Operation

Excerpt: "Having [James G. Elliott Co.] as part of the team is the equivalent of having an instant sales presence," says Slon. "The marketing and research is much more substantial and one of the things that was appealing about the partnership is they agreed to dedicate the equivalent of one full-time staff person to us—so one-half person in New York and another half in Los Angeles."

Read the full article here: http://www.foliomag.com/2012/saturday-evening-post-outsources-sales-operation

Video: Jim Elliott on why some magazines are winning, others are losing.

In August 2012, Jim Elliott was featured in Matt Kinsman's ABM Member Spotlight Video Interview.

ABM, the association of business information and media companies, is the center of the global b-to-b ecosystem. ABM is the only association focused on the integrated b-to-b media model — which includes business information, digital, print and events.

Full link click here

"Winning magazines believe in print and they have stamina — they haven’t made massive cutbacks — and they have the ability to prove a unique and committed audience.” 

Client Interview: The American Legion

The May/June issue of Signature Magazine contains a thoughtful piece about the future of print and digital magazine treatments by Carla Kalogeridis, Editorial Director of Association Media & Publishing.  The article includes comments by David Carey, President of Hearst; Jack Griffin of Empirical Media Advisors (former CEO of Time Inc.); and Jeffrey Stoffer, Director of The American Legion Magazine Division (see pages 32-33).  The American Legion Magazine is a client of the Elliott Company, and we appreciate Mr. Stoffer’s calling attention to the success we are achieving together.

http://online.qmags.com/SNAP0512#pg25&mode2

Association Media & Publishing Annual Meeting

At the Association Media & Publishing annual meeting on June 13th, Jim Elliott and Bob Hanna, Advertising Director of the Christian Science Monitor, delivered the presentation, "How the Christian Science Monitor Reinvented Itself," to attendees looking for ways to enhance  revenue and reduce subsidies.

Click to download a .pdf file of presentation.