Nigel Miller, director of public affairs, Labatt Breweries of Canada
Newspaper usage: Fairly frequent
Newspaper strategy: ‘We do advertise in many of the major dailies across Canada, and in magazines as well. The difference is that we do our information advertising in newspapers and our image advertising on television. Given the fact that we do advertise in the major dailies, community papers and campus newspapers across the country, I’m not sure that we will advertise more than we currently do. Our mix will continue to evolve, but the changes will come about more from the changes in our portfolio than they will from changes to the newspapers’
Mike Welling, former VP of brand development, foods, Unilever Canada
Newspaper usage: Very infrequent
Newspaper strategy:
‘If you think about what it costs versus what you could buy 100 GRPs for on television, or what you could buy in terms of magazine with all the pass-around benefits and the like, I think it is one of the things that works against them…. I think the papers are potentially missing an opportunity to work with brand builders because of their rate structure. But that is the model that they are built upon, so that leads us to look for greater use of other vehicles.’
Cameron Loopstra, Ontario regional marketing manager, Burger King
Newspaper usage: varies; local store marketing but very rare national runs
Newspaper strategy: ‘What gets [my] attention is what kind of penetration you’re having and what kind of value you’re getting. [Each time], I’ll have our media agency evaluate the different opportunities and look at the GRPs and the penetration it’s going to have, and then make my decision based on that.
‘Sometimes we’ll have local markets, subsidize national promos with local papers because we have a yearly deal in some smaller markets. But we usually stay away from print. It’s very expensive [and] you only get one day.’
Dale Hooper, VP brand marketing, Frito-Lay Canada
Newspaper usage: Infrequent
Newspaper strategy:
‘We’re actually in newspapers every week. We are always on ads in flyers. So our brands are often in what I would consider the weekly papers, although it’s not in the editorials and it’s not [ROP] in the newspapers…. We haven’t used newspapers to build our brand, if you put it that way. Newspapers [for us] are a very tactical measure.
‘It is expensive. It is a very expensive medium. It’s expensive compared to putting a 30-second ad on [TV].’
Sarah Kemp, public relations manager, Procter & Gamble
Newspaper usage: Infrequent
Newspaper strategy:
‘Our brands tend to skew fairly strongly female, and newspaper is 50/50. Whereas if I’m buying a female magazine, we can more accurately hit [our] target…. So it’s absolutely an efficiency question.
‘We do use newspapers sometimes for brands that have large targets. Or when we’re trying to target something locally, rather than nationally…. Theoretically, it’s a cost thing. It’s less expensive and more efficient for us to reach our target through other media.’
