“I’m buying Ski and Skiing’s September issues because they’re the skiers’ catalogs for information by mail. We’ve found that the conversion factor is much higher with the ski books, than with general interest magazines,” according to another.
“I think we’re missing the boat if we think we’ll reach the women’s ski market through Ski and Skiing,” says a third, who is interested in targeting that market this year.
“Ski and Skiing still represent pretty good buys for reaching the frequent, better skier. We couldn’t develop a national advertising strategy based solely on the ski books however,” says another. “For instance, it wouldn’t be a good way to reach the newly-emerging Southern skier market. Therefore, we’ll be buying a number of city and regional magazines as well.”
Magazine advertising. It’s expensive, but the cost is proportionate to the circulation figures and the demographics of the readership. Results are measured in cost per inquiry, piles of coupons, address-coded reader responses and conversions. It’s a tool to create and perpetuate the image of your product and it’s a controllable message. By buying space in a credible publication, you communicate your convictions about who you are and what you are selling. If you are misrepresented in print by your advertising, it’s your own fault.
What to Buy?
The quality of a national media campaign is directly proportional to the quality of a media budget. If you have only enough dollars for single insertions in one or two magazines, the wise buy is the early fall issues of major ski books. It might be fun to experiment with prominent cycling or running publications on a premise of “crossover” in sports. Or, to buy space in a major news or business publication, because the reader demographics indicate that an impressive number are skiers. But by making a vertical buy, you are sure that your exposure will be with skiers. Experiments require long-term and multi-dollar commitments before results are truly measurable.
Do the vertical publications reach everyone who is your potential customer? No. But they do reach the person who is interested enough in the sport to spend $1.50 or more an issue to learn more about it and to find upto-date information on where they can pursue this recreational activity.
If you want to direct your efforts at a specific market—the day skier, women, over-50’s, up-scale business person, etc.—should you buy magazines that “talk” to that audience?
Yes. If the magazine’s research and sales efforts convince you that a sizeable number of its readers: 1. travel, 2. ski, or 3. share demographic characteristics of the skier market, and the circulation numbers are impressive, you should be getting a good buy. A good ad will be noticed by the skier/readers.
(One caveat: before buying, determine if the magazine has an editorial commitment to travel. Your visibility can be supplemented by editorial mention in the same or in subsequent issues if you implement an effective, consistent and reliable publicity campaign as well.)
Advertising Strategies
The marketing director of a destination and major metropolitan weekend resort in New England says her area management is committed to Ski and Skiing. She buys Eastern regional editions and, for the first time last year, went with a four-color ad. She has experimented with regional buys of national magazine networks, but the small space and limited frequency didn’t produce results. She says the publications which offer a “reader service” vehicle for obtaining more information about advertisers and editorial subjects are of greater value than coupons in an individual ad.
A well-established Rocky Mountain resort concentrates its advertising on its “shoulder periods”—early and late season. The bulk of their budget is allocated to local and regional magazines, newspapers, radio and some outdoor. They’re generally not interested in national magazines unless a promotion or trade-out has been worked out.
Targeting
Do the chairmen of the Fortune 500 companies read the ski publications? Do single, upwardly-mobile business people read Ski? Do two-wagearner, childless couples read Skiing? Are more and more women reading Powder? I don’t know. However, I suspect that upwardly mobile people to whom recreation is as important as their careers, families, etc., have priorities when it comes to reading all the literature available to and of interest to them. Will they put down Business Week and pick up the first ski magazine of the season because they happened to arrive in the mail the same day? Maybe.
