The IDM Brief 2016: The Economist The Challenge in a Nutshell: get more women to read and subscribe to The Economist
Brand Introduction Who we are Many people think The Economist is only about economics. It s not. It s about pretty much everything. From politics to business and finance, from science and technology to the arts we bring our readers clear analysis of the issues that lie behind each week s global news stories. We satisfy the naturally curious with a distilled view of world affairs that is intelligent, insightful and thought-provoking. Whatever is happening across the globe, we have an opinion on it. Our positioning is: The Economist is your essential guide to the forces that shape our future Ever since our launch in 1843, we ve maintained a fiercely independent editorial stance, believing in the freedom of the individual, the freedom of markets and the free exchange of knowledge and ideas. It s no wonder that JFK and Mandela numbered amongst our readers. In today s world we continue to promote the same essential freedoms and challenge wherever we see them being denied. Because of this strong, journalistic point of view, we continue to regard ourselves as a weekly newspaper, never a mere magazine (Search The Economist explains itself on economist.com to find out more). Our brand values A smart guide to the forces that shape the future A trusted filter on world affairs An advocate for positive change Giving a global perspective Quality our readers are willing to pay for Our readers Our core readers are called Globally Curious who share a psychographic, not a demographic. They may come from different cultures, different parts of the world and from different professional sectors. But what they all share is an intellectual curiosity about the key issues that influence and shape our world. They are people who want to change the world, not rule it. 2
We ve defined the key characteristics of our audience as: Facing forward, looking outward Independent thinkers, not tribal about political ideology Keenly interested in events and places beyond their national boundaries Keeping up with developments in technology Creative, optimistic, liking a challenge Professionally-driven and materialistic But also ethical and happy to volunteer to help others See the Appendix for information on customer profiles Our marketing In the past, The Economist has been viewed in some circles as being focused on a narrow, intellectual elite. Its title has been misread as that of a dry and rather distant journal. Our current marketing approach sets out to shatter those misconceptions. In true Economist style, it s a witty subversion of the familiar. It also makes our readers a vital part of our story. In all our writing we seek to help this audience identify itself and make it clear their beliefs are the same as our beliefs. It doesn t matter who you are professionally, when you subscribe to The Economist you re not only satisfying your inherent desire to know more about the issues that shape our world, you ve found your intellectual home. 3
Our challenge The Economist has identified that a greater proportion of new subscribers are male, despite an equal split of male and female Globally Curious in the market. Unpicking this trend, we know from research that non-readers believe The Economist has masculine traits, which we may have unintentionally been reinforcing in some of our communications: I never read The Economist. Management trainee.aged 42. The pregnant pause. Make sure you re not the father. If you want to be a CEO, grow some. Yet, our core values and attitudes are absolutely gender-neutral. We have a female editor, our content is strongly pro-equality and it s a topic we regularly cover. So how do we address the fact that women are 10% less likely to respond to our advertising and 50% less likely to buy? We know women want a level playing field, not special treatment, so we have to carefully consider how we engage them with our advertising. It is interesting to observe the type of advertising women typically respond to and the content they like to consume: Women are more likely to click on adverts with human topics and narrative hooks, and less likely to click on those with statistics and masculine references When commenting on content from The Economist on social media, women are more likely to reference key words such as family, research, making, help, social, book. Whereas men are more likely to comment with words such as economy, crisis, major, course, end, debt. See the Appendix for the full list. Our own data proves that the more we can get women to engage with our content, the narrower the gender gap in our readership becomes. 4
(Y)our Brief Objective Continue to grow the UK subscriber base while increasing the percentage of female subscribers from 29% to 40% by the end of 2017 (see Appendix 1 for breakdown of targets) The task We would like you to create a direct and digital marketing strategy to achieve the above business objective with a total marketing budget of 500,000 excluding VAT. It is important your main focus is on the acquisition of new subscribers to grow the size of the base and redress the gender balance. We are looking for your strategic recommendation on how we tackle the key issue i.e. whether it is an overt recruitment drive, or a more discreet approach. We will also be looking for you to demonstrate a clear understanding of our target audience and how we can increase both brand appeal, and conversion. And don t forget to tell a good story, we re a newspaper after all. In terms of specific deliverables we would like you to include: An elevator pitch video (maximum 3 minutes) The key challenges the brand will have to overcome to achieve our objective, for example, brand, culture, audience or competitor barriers. We strongly recommend you undertake your own consumer and market research to inform this. Direct and digital strategy, including objectives, acquisition strategy (including data targeting and segmentation) and a communication plan with your proposed weight of paid, earned and owned media Distribution of the marketing budget over the campaign period / by channel to get a maximum Return on Investment (ROI). Your big campaign idea and creative recommendations - How are we going to create a significant step-change while remaining true to our core brand values? Will there be a ripple effect of your activity and how might we benefit from this? KPIs and recommended measurement Test and learn plan, including how we could use the UK pilot to inform global roll-out High level considerations for retention of new female subscribers in Years 2 and 3 5
Entry Guidelines: You will need to submit two pieces of work in order to complete your entry. i) A 3 minute video/animated presentation ii) A report which outlines your strategy plan Video/presentation Your video or animated presentation should have great impact and make us want to read your full strategy document. All we need from you is the link to your video (we don t need an actual copy of the video file). It is up to you where you host it; we just need to be able to view it. Suggested platforms you could use are YouTube, Vimeo or Prezi. The video should be no longer than 3 minutes in length. Please ensure that you state your team name within the video. Why is this section important? This is what the judges base their first round judging on. It is a real challenge to give a condensed snapshot of your whole campaign which is why your video/animated presentation should have impact. It should grab your audience (the judges/prospective client: The Economist) from the outset, and should invite them to look more deeply into your campaign. When deciding on a shortlist of teams to invite to pitch to the client, the judges should be able to return again and again to your video in order to capture the essence of your campaign. Report Your report should be no more than 22 pages in length. You may also add a further (max.) 15 pages of appendices. It should be presented in PDF format and include details of your team name on all pages. Mandatories You cannot change or affect the editorial content in any way and this should not be considered as part of your response. However, you do have the flexibility to package together existing content and tailor / recommend content for specific audiences To be clear, this isn t about turning The Economist into The Economiss - we do not want a campaign that is patronising or demeaning to women in any way The Economist does not want to affiliate itself with a specific cause or political body e.g. The Women s Equality Party The Economist also doesn t want to compromise the integrity of our Editor, Zanny Minton Beddoes, so do not use her as a figurehead in your creative recommendations This brief is for a UK pilot only, running from Jan 2017 to Dec 2017 Ensure your strategy is compliant with data protection laws we recommend you include key considerations as part of your response 6
Appendix 1. Acquisition targets Sub start month 2015 New subs Female New subs Men Total % Female of total subs excl unknown Jan 3,937 11,226 15,163 26% Feb 2,245 5,675 7,920 28% Mar 1,845 4,296 6,141 30% Apr 1,747 4,248 5,995 29% May 1,822 4,747 6,569 28% Jun 1,766 4,199 5,965 30% Jul 1,669 3,989 5,658 29% Aug 2,468 6,400 8,868 28% Sep 3,117 7,310 10,427 30% Oct 11,049 25,278 36,327 30% Nov 7,844 17,892 25,736 30% Dec 1,770 3,565 5,335 33% TOTAL 41,279 98,825 140,104 29% Target 2017 75,000 113,650 188,650 40% 2. Customer Value Life Time Value (LTV): assume a LTV of 600 per customer (indicative due to confidentiality) Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): CPA Channel 100 Affilliate marketing 95 Direct Mail lapsed subscribers 160 Direct Mail Prospecting 160 Display Conversion 450 Display Development 170 Email Prospecting 160 Experiential 110 Inserts in Economist 180 Inserts Prospecting 140 Partnerships 50 Search Paid 105 Social Fans & Followers 280 Social Prospecting 7
3. Audience Profiles Age (yrs) Econ subscriber (%) 16-20 0.50 21-29 7.20 30-39 17.40 40-49 20.90 50-64 29.10 65+ 24.90 Household Income ($) Econ subscriber (%) 0-59,999 12.30 60,000-89,999 17.00 90,000-149,000 29.30 150,000-224,999 19.90 225,000-349,999 9.70 350,000+ 11.80 4. Audience Profiles continued Industry sectors Econ subscriber (%) Educational 16.60 Financial 23.60 Manufacturing 9.50 Government 7.40 Institutional/Trade 1.40 Mining Agriculture 2.70 Private Individuals 2.90 Professions 16.10 Services 16.50 Ultitilies 3.30 5. Topics of interest by gender Female vs Male vs Shared Female Topics Shared Topics Male Topics Development Year Economy Help World China Family Years Risk Research Education Crisis Making Work Major Future People Europe Book Government Course Social State Debt Change Business End Number Policy Beginning Source: Proximity analysis of The Economist topics engaged with on social media topics by gender 8
5. Facebook brand response campaign results by gender Gender Sum of Clicks Row Lables Female 96810 10311 Big Mac Index 15362 If you re so busy, then how come you re reading this? 6372 Black America: The fire and the fuel 43301 Europe s boat people (migrants) 7645 I must teach harder in class 1941 Dealing With Rogue Drones 1022 Is it global warming or just the weather? Male 259735 73303 Big Mac Index 18456 Black America: The fire and the fuel 43633 Dealing With Rogue Drones 81967 Europe s boat people (migrants) 7106 If you re so busy, then how come you re reading this? 4420 I must teach harder in class 4359 I must teach harder in class 356545 Grand total 6. Red, White and You & Brand Guidelines 9