Advertising in community newspapers works

Tiaan Ras, media intelligence manager for Ads24, which recently undertook an extensive survey of 38 community newspaper footprint areas that spanned the length and breadth of South Africa, says: " About 68% of our readers read most pages, or read their local paper from cover to cover, proving the value of community newspapers as an effective advertising medium."

Even better news for advertisers in community newspapers is the fact that across all LSMs, readers rated advertising in the top four interest sets.

In terms of editorial content, 'Local is Lekker' was either top of the interest set or second only to advertising of specials or promotions, in all areas of the survey directed by Jos Kuper of Kuper Reseach.

"Advertising takes on a strongly valued and informative role for community newspapers - clearly as valued as editorial per se," says Ras.

Other popular interest sets were crime and policing issues, events, sports, and community and social responsibility projects.

Penetration of community newspapers was also excellent with seven out of ten people in the Ads24 community footprint areas reading at least one community newspaper on a weekly basis.

According to the information on Compass24, Knock 'n Drop is a no-no for strongly affluent areas. In 13 areas with an LSM 8 plus predominance, there are at least 20% of the readers who do not read pamphlets in the post box at all.

These affluent markets express a preference for either inserts in the community newspaper or for ROP rather than Knock 'n Drop, and in nine of the thirteen particularly affluent areas, ROP advertising is slightly preferred to newspaper inserts.

This information may be of particular interest to advertisers who use printed leaflets - the most popular medium for direct marketing - and one that only yields about a 2% response rate.

"Advertisers and media planners can use www.compass24.co.za, a free and interactive tool, to gain a competitive advantage in the community market by understanding and leveraging the preferences and patterns that drive consumers," says Ras.