Gfk MRI: Little Readership Lift to Ads Near Relevant Edit

One of the biggest time sucks in negotiating magazine ad buying is positioning. Ad salespeople contort themselves to no end to satisfy advertisers’ demands to be in the first 20 pages of the book, next to relevant articles, away from controversial ones, etc.Now, new findings from Gfk MRI suggest that some of that effort might be wasted.The research firm analyzed nearly 68,000 ads that ran in consumer magazines over roughly the past 18 months to see how an ad’s positioning affected its readership.MRI found that ads that ran next to editorial content did perform better than those that ran next to other ads. (Precisely, ads next to other ads were read by 46 percent of readers on average while ads next to edit averaged a readership score of 51 percent.)But when the ad ran next to “relevant” edit (defined by MRI as being about the same subject), the readership score was the same. The finding suggests there’s nothing to be gained by fighting for “relevant” editorial adjacency. The same essentially held true for other subsets of ads next to editorial. Those that ran next to a cover story or article had a score of 50 percent.Where ads did get a bump in notice was when they ran next to the table of contents, possibly because readers linger on and return to the TOC, making it more likely they’d glance at the facing ad. Those ads averaged a readership score of 59 percent.The findings are based on all types of titles, raising the question, how did they differ by genre? MRI found that in women’s fashion and beauty and bridal magazines, where ads are often considered part of the content, ads scored the same whether they were next to an ad or editorial in general. The vast majority of other ad categories performed in line with the average, though, according to MRI.The MRI findings aren’t the first to question the relevance of ad positioning. Earlier studies by research firm Affinity and agency Starcom found little difference between recall of ads whether they appeared in the front or back half of the book.Jack Hanrahan, a former print director at OMD, is now editor of Circ Matters, a magazine-circulation newsletter, and has sought to debunk the importance placed on certain forms of positioning.“It does support the fact that you want to make sure your ad is positioned against editorial,” he said of the MRI findings. On the other hand, he said, “it certainly would cause you to think, fighting for relevant editorial is not as productive as some people think.”Still, it’ll be hard to convince some buyers to abandon the long-held belief that ad positioning matters.While people read magazines for a variety of reasons, there’s a “heightened awareness” of an ad that runs next to relevant editorial, such as a food product next to a recipe section, said Audrey Siegel, president of TargetCast tcm.“I believe that context matters,” she said.

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Gfk MRI: Little Readership Lift to Ads Near Relevant Edit

Lucia Moses

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Lucia Moses