Kleine Zeitung tackles branding, ad and subscription sales in a single campaign

By Andrea Rachbauer

Head of Marketing

Kleine Zeitung

Graz, Steiermark, Austria

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The major Kleine Zeitung campaign in 2020 was not developed as a pure image campaign. From the start, it was primarily a performance sales campaign for the introduction of the new digital subscription Kleine Web + App.

To build up high awareness for the product launch, we started the campaign with an impactful image phase for the brand Kleine Zeitung.

The multi-faceted campaign sought to reach target audiences while measuring their perception of the brand.

Objectives of the image part of the campaign

1. Strengthen brand perception with an unexpected, modern approach in the target group of 30-45 year olds.
2. Emphasise and strengthen the positioning dimension of regionality, independence, and quality.
3. Draw attention to the brand in preparation for the launch of the new digital subscription Kleine Web + App.

To check the achievement of the objectives, we carried out an advertising impact measurement regarding image and perception after the campaign and compared the results with the values of a zero measurement before the start of the campaign.

Advertising perception

During the campaign period, advertising awareness for Kleine Zeitung increased by 8% and in the main circulation area by 12%.

Advertising by Kleine Zeitung was most strongly perceived in the print edition of Kleine Zeitung followed by the Kleine Zeitung Web site and Facebook posts and ads.

Aided advertising recall

Overall, aided advertising recall was 27% and thus achieved an above-average value in comparison, despite the short campaign duration of only two weeks.

At 29%, those under 49 perceived the advertising more strongly than those over 50 (22%).

Image

The most frequently unaided image positions supported correspond to the positioning dimensions emphasised in the campaign. In the supported survey, five out of seven image positions of Kleine Zeitung were rated significantly better after the campaign:

• "Reports independently and objectively": +8%
• "Assumes its social responsibility": +10%
• "Is digitally present": +10%
• "Is very close to my region and reports about events in my region": +11%
• "Delivers high-quality content": +16%

After this image phase, the campaign focus changed to the market launch of the new digital subscription. In addition to promoting the new digital subscription, the focus was on lead generation from new subscribers by using various digital channels.

We also tested different price communication (subscription price per week or month, etc.), different colours, a fact-based and image-based formulation of our new product, and different call-to-action formulations and button-designs. We surfaced many interesting insights, noted below.

Findings from the design of online banners on lead generation

• No influence of colour and call-to-action wording.
• Simple, static, fact-based banners performed better than fancy animated banners. This was not only on our Web site but also on Facebook.
• A banner without price information performed better than a banner with subscription price per week or month.

Findings in media channels

We achieved the most subscriptions in those channels where potential new subscribers are already very close to us, such as on our own Web site, newsletter, and Facebook channels.

Based on the model of a sales funnel, we will focus on our fans for generation of new subscribers, who already know quite well who we are and are obviously just waiting for the proper subscription offer able to meet their needs.

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About Andrea Rachbauer

Andrea Rachbauer is head of marketing at Kleine Zeitung in Graz, Steiermark, Austria. She can be reached at [email protected].

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