Don't forget about Regional!

Hertfordshire's Local Paper

After my 3 week stint in press, I have a week in regional - which is not just regional press but regional everything! Until I got here and did not realise how important regional is to most of our clients. Most advertisers think big and think national - how can I communicate our message to the masses? However, this is not a rule of thumb, sometimes you need to start small and local to get the greatest impact for your message.

Regional works across all mediums; TV, Radio, Outdoor, Press, Internet, Door Drops etc, but on a localised basis. In press alone they deal with over 1400 titles, compared to the 20 something titles in national press. They also deal with over hundreds of radio stations all over the UK, making them the most knowledgeable people in local UK advertising.

Taking retail brands as an example, local and regional advertising is essential to them when launching new stores. It's vital for stores to know their local area, who lives there? What are their habits? If for example, the area had a very low social grade and household income, higher-priced retailers would have to either adapt their pricing and advertising message or choose another site entirely in order to prevent failure.

In order to determine the local audience Regional use this very funky tool which creates a map of the local area you are wanting to know about where you can then put layers on such as schools, ethnicity, social grades etc - this provides a mind blowing map as it produces a visual of the audience the client is trying to look for. It has in some cases, provided 'Eureka' moments, as regional mapping can show trends in certain audiences which you might have not known about before. Knowing your local audience is vital because if you get them on board, then your job is already half done for you!

I have included an example of a regional map; this map alone shows us the area of Birmingham and the Penetration of the Asian community within the city. The coloured area represents the percentage of Asian penetration - the red areas show that the Asian penetration is 18 times more than the national average - this can give wonderful insight to companies wishing to target Asian communities. The turquoise squares show the primary and secondary schools within Birmingham, with the small blue spots showing where 6 sheets (outdoor media) are in relation to both the schools and Asian Communities.

There is no end to what the tool can do and can serve as a visual for audience segmentation and demographics.

City of Birmingham

Also regional press has stigma to it that 'no-one reads it', but this is not true. I learnt whilst in the department that national press acts as a window- giving you a snapshot of the world, where as local papers act as a mirror whereby it reflects what is going on around you in your local community. In fact, 70.7% of all British adults, 32.9 million people, regularly read a regional newspaper compared with 56.8% who read a national newspaper, furthermore, 27% of people who read a regional newspaper do not read a national newspaper - after all you would be more interested about a murder that happens on your doorstop than you are a murder 100k away....

Walsall Advertiser distribution

This map shows the distribution in purple stripes of the Walsall Advertiser - this information allows advertisers to determine who it reaches and where.

This needless to say takes a lot of time and work by the regional team. They have to think of a whole strategy within a localised area, which requires specialist knowledge of all local titles, radio stations,TV stations and outdoor panels etc, in order to target the audience they want. The regional team are fantastic and not only are they specialists across all local mediums, they are also the comms planners! 

Trouble is, regional can get a bit forgotten about within massive national campaigns but what that they do is absolutely imperative and they do a bloody good job at it too!

Brief thoughts on advertising regulations....

Advertising is obviously very powerful, where we subject consumers to a bombardment of information from a company or authority which subtly (or blatantly) tells them to do something. This can be a very sensitive area when deciding what message to tell them and how - which burns the question of who monitors and regulates our industry? I don't claim to speak from an expert opinion, so I can only go by what I have picked up along the way.

Atheist Bus Campaign- Jan 2009

In terms of content, the ASA (Advertising Standards Authorities) manages what the creative agencies can do or say, which does not breach their code of policy. Interestingly, the ASA cannot enforce legislation, nor is it funded by the government - rather is it funded by a levy that is placed on the industry, making it a self-regulatory body. It's role is to investigate any complaints made by consumers and the like about the content of any advertisement - it's job is to ensure that all advertising complies with their code of policy whereby no advert is misleading, ambiguous, inaccurate or otherwise. Some cases which caused controversy was the Jan 2009 'Atheist bus campaign', whereby atheists were promoting their belief that there is 'no god' - this was communicated via posters slapped on the side of buses with the message: 'There probably is no God. So Stop Worrying and Enjoy your Life'. - this caused uproar by many Christian groups. The claim was investigated but was dismissed on the fact that the advert was an expression of the advertiser's opinion and that the claims in it were not capable of objective substantiation - in essence they were not derogatory to people with faith, just merely expressing their own. 

Viceroys cigarette advertisement

Another governing body (of many) within the advertising and communications industry is Ofcom, probably the one that affects us (in this agency) the most. Ofcom is a government-approved regulatory authority for the telecommunications and broadcasting industries in the UK. Ofcom and the ASA compliment each other and ensures consistency in the advertising process. They essentially take the 'fun' out, as they prevent; cigarettes from being advertised, alcohol to be glamorised and perceived as 'you need to drink in order to have fun' and anything illegal such as drugs (obviously). This is all well and good, as they are trying to protect the innocent consumer - but as we enter a more celebrity crazed world, certain rules and regulations have relaxed which advertisers and communication agencies can exploit.


One of the most recent changes in the Ofcom regulations is the allowing of 'Product placement' on UK television. Product placement has always been allowed in the USA and any film coming from USA to our UK screens always blurred out any brands featured. However, the new regulations allows for advertisers to seek new streams of revenue from product placement within TV shows. 


As outlined by the Guardian: 'Four categories of content – films (which in this case includes dramas and documentaries); TV series including soap operas; entertainment shows; and sports programmes – will be free to use product placement.

Placement of alcohol and tobacco products is also barred and the same restrictions apply to gambling, medicines, baby milk and foods that are high in sugar or salt.

Other services that cannot be advertised on television, including escort agencies and weapons, have also been excluded from the new rules by Ofcom' http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/20/ofcom-product-placement-uk-tv

This has already been put into action with music videos having the celebrity sporting branded clothing and accessories, such like Pixie Lott seen to be sporting Lacoste shoes in her music video 'Gravity'.

I don't know why this was never allowed before - quite rightly you cannot advertise in this way to children - however, why not to adults? Surely we are intelligent enough to spot celebrity endorsement, whereby we all don't run out and buy the products because it is seen as a recommendation? Ofcom has clearly seen the benefits which can come from product placement - especially in a time of retail struggle and celebrity craze.Ofcom estimate product placement to generate an annual value of £150m, and worth at least 5% of the total UK advertising market.

 This has opened up a new and exciting way of advertising and communicating our message to our consumers through broadcasting, which is not just a static 30s advert. This lift also applies to radio, where DJ's and presenters can endorse products on air within radio shows - this has more risk of cluttering the airwaves and perceived as more 'annoying' to consumers as you are not relying on visuals and therefore not as subtle.

Are we edging to a country of blatant advertising? UK is known for its subtle and clever advertising, so lets hope we use product placement in the same way.

Imagine a world without books.......

As I descend into my post-Christmas blues and I settle into my new department at work - I reflect on some of  my thoughts that I had over the holidays.

One of my thoughts were;
Imagine a world without books? This gives a sense of emptiness and an impression of a much less interesting place to live, with all our imaginations and thoughts tied up in our heads and not shared. However if I rephrase the question to; Imagine a world without physical books? Does this conjure up the same feelings? I mean, the books still exist but not in the traditional format that we are used to - instead we are going digital. This sparks the discussion of how important is the physical nature of the book and do we need it to enjoy the story?

I watched an interesting documentary on BBC called 'Imagine', where the new realm of digitalisation is decreasing the number of physical books that we buy in shops. Instead it is the era of Kindles, iPads and e-books, where you can download thousands of books onto one device without the need of lugging big bulky books around with you. Some people think this kills the romanticism of reading books and takes away from the whole experience, other people think that the book is just a method of transmitting ideas - therefore it does not matter how these are communicated. It is interesting to think that people believe that the actual holding of the book and the smell of the book adds to the experience - surely we are just reading it for the escapism? However, as it may seem that we are running into this era where everyone owns an iPad (which it may seem like that to a  Londoner) but the reality is that only 13% in the UK actually own an e-book reader, which tells me we are quite far off a world of no books!


Translating this digital ethos to the press world, news and newspapers can be downloaded easily by way of 'apps', but are they a threat? My uncle is a perfect example of this, a man who just turned 60 was quite happy to chuck away the use of the newspaper and read the news on his new iPad. This has sparked certain theories within the industry that 'press' is a dying medium and that there are no future for the press traders - its all going digital! I wonder though, how much of this is true? Sure, the press team are getting trained in digital aspects, but I think that is more for purposes of harmonisation in the industry to encourage working together.

Press has been on the decline, but looking at recent statistics; 10+ million newspapers are still bought everyday in the UK with 75,763,015 sold every week! Speaking in terms of advertising, 1 insertion reaches about 57% of all adults. If you were to read just those statistics alone, you would not think press is on the decline - it is still prevalent within our society and I don't see it going anywhere soon. If you want to reach adults on a mass scale, then press is definitely a strong contender in the channel mix.

The digitalisation is certainly a lot faster in London than anywhere else in the UK, in fact, London is a little world of its own where people forget that the rest of the UK exists (London accounts for 12% of the entire UK population). Life is a lot slower in many parts of the UK, where the carrying of books is not an issue and they have time to go pick up the daily newspaper - however, when London sneezes, the rest of the UK catches a cold..... therefore London maybe a good futuristic illustration of the world to come, where everybody throws away traditional methods of reading and embraces the digital world of e-books.

It begs the question, what could ever be next?