Coles Supermarkets dramatically slashes spending on newspapers and magazines
Coles Supermarkets print spend has gone down, down at the start of 2016.
One of Australia’s biggest advertising spenders has dramatically cut its spending across newspapers and magazines in recent months, Mumbrella can reveal.
Year-on-year, Nielsen estimates Coles Supermarkets has gone from spending around $100,000-$200,000 per week in January and February of 2015 to below $50,000 every week this year, except in the week leading up to Australia Day.
The cuts in print spending have been even more significant, with the supermarket chain’s spending collapsing by a factor of 10 from an estimated $462,000 in January/February of 2015 to just $34,000 this year.
I would expect the reduction is due to UM doing a poor job around media strategy. Coles people are smart and won’t spend money on media with no return, I think this is another clear sign UM have done a really poor job with Coles.
Maybe that’s why they are called UMmmm.
I’m here all week, folks!
Why the fuck were they spending so much on print to begin with?
Their major competitor was advised to do this 2 years ago with research to back it up – but the gerontocracy running Australia’s big supermarkets take a long time to get with the programme and get out of their comfort zones.
If the decision is driven by true insights/data, fine. If it’s driven by a ‘specialist agency’ saying put all your marketing dollars into social/online without being backed by an analysis of all the channels, then not so good. Read Mark Ritson’s opinion piece on this http://www.smh.com.au/business.....nfzlz.html
They’ll put their money where it works. If print is delivering for them, they’ll invest it where it does. Let’s move on…
Why the focus on print? It’s unfair as you haven’t all the facts. SMI’s data shows the category of Food/Alcoholic Retailers has reduced total ad spend by 25% this CYTD from Jan-Feb last year. And that’s across all media. But as Food/Alcoholic Retailers spend the bulk of their ad dollars on TV the category’s dollar and percentage decline is the largest on TV. Newspapers are the second largest media for Food/Alcoholic Retail spending. Digital is the third largest, and even that spend is down 20.6% CYTD.
Whenever I look through a free copy of the Daily Tele I see Coles ads and it makes me wonder why the company would want to be so closely associated with such a dodgy, hateful newspaper. Always made me think twice about shopping there.
Its unfortunately a classic bastardization of statistics. Taking a snapshot and making a story out of it, without framing up the whole picture, its actually quite misleading. Its important to be aware, all this ad spend information is explicitly out there.
I’m a digital marketer with zero skin in the print game. I just don’t like to see a story skew the facts, all for a headline. Especially from such a great publisher as Mumbrella.
NM
Hi Jane and Nick,
First off thanks for taking the time to comment and for providing the feedback.
Just to clarify Coles were approached to comment. They declined to do so.
In terms of the current shift in retail marketing I take that on board but I would note Nielsen’s numbers show a sudden shift out of print at three times the sector trend appearing in SMI.
Nicholas, I recognise there is a lot of data out there but understanding precisely where the spend has been shifted to is more difficult, especially when much of it’s propriety data and the client is declining to comment. If there’s additional relevant ad spend info that you can share – I’d be very interested to see it.
In this instance we received a tip that one of the biggest spenders in Australia had suddenly and dramatically cut its print spend. The data available confirmed this and the relevant parties were approached and given right of reply. I’d argue this story is fair and does have the broad context.
Many thanks
Nic – Mumbrella
Picture 4 bill boards and 4 video screens. Picture 3/4’s of Australia’s population glued to these 8 area’s daily.
Fast forward
Picture 50 bill boards and 50 video screens. Picture a proportion of 3/4’s of Australia’s population looking at some of these screens, but not all, being able to skip ad’s, being able to block ad’s, being able to watch video’s without ad’s. Printed news papers? Nobody reads them anymore?
Picture a new world. Whether stats appear skewed is sometimes a little like beauty. What you want to perceive is your choice, however if you don’t analyse the data you will lose money.
A certain outcome for many brands – just you watch; they will invest where they see the returns, which are evaporating from print.
Have a closer look at Coles radio spend. I think you’ll find they have found a way to talk to shoppers right up to the check-out.
Hours are cut in shops. Averagely $1000 a week in most. You won’t see that reported though