Magners Specials won The Mail on Sunday’s ‘Say it on A Sunday’ competition in June 2011. Of over 70 high quality entries, Magners Specials won the competition with a prize valued at £250,000 and comprising advertising space in The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online plus a research project to measure the effectiveness of the campaign.
The Sunday environment is quite distinct from the rest of the week, with the average consumer enjoying a relatively relaxed day and savouring their chosen media experiences, especially their newspapers. The Mail on Sunday’s ‘Say it on A Sunday’ research, which launched in April this year, demonstrated how this more relaxed frame of mind leads to longer and more involved reading experiences and subsequently allows advertising to work harder. The Sunday mindset of planning for the week ahead, as well as for events in the further future, provides advertisers with a differentiated communications window where consumers are looking for inspiration.
Magners Specials proved a perfect fit with The Mail on Sundays’ audience which delivers a slight female bias, allowing Magners the opportunity to engage with women who may want to substitute a glass of wine for a Magners Special. These readers also enjoy trying new drinks, making them an ideal launch audience for this exciting new cider varietal.
Some of the key findings from the research:
The campaign generated high levels of recognition for Magners – with readers 135% more likely to recognise the campaign compared to the control (non-exposed) sample.
• Magners Specials scores for advertising saliency, involvement and persuasion (key ad effectiveness metrics) for those who saw the Magners Specials advertising were much higher than the FMCG category norms, indicating the relevance of the media and the increased engagement of Sunday reading. (Norms collected by Hall & Partners, the research agency which conducted the research.)
• Awareness of Magners specials amongst those who had been exposed to the campaign in both print and on Mail Online was 20% higher than those who had seen the print campaign alone, proving that exposure to advertising in the Mail brand across both platforms significantly increases communications impact.
• Seeing the advertising in both the print title and on-line site of the Mail amplified consumers’ emotional proximity to Magners Specials – with those exposed to both mediums scoring significantly higher for metrics such as ‘I believe what this ad says about the brand’.
• The Sunday environment has helped to achieve a strong connection between readers and the Magners Specials brand. The campaign smashed FMCG category norms, with readers being 40% more likely than the average audience of an FMCG campaign to claim that they like the brand and feel they have something in common with it.
• The campaign has also helped to drive action, with almost 1 in 9 respondents who recognised the advertising in The Mail on Sunday claiming to have either taken, or be planning to take some action as a result of the activity (looking for more information, talking to friends about the brand or buying it).
Marcus Rich (pictured), Managing Director of The Mail on Sunday, commented: “We are delighted, but not surprised by these fantastic research results. This proves again the value of newspaper advertising and the key communications role that they can play in product launches. The results were even more impressive amongst consumers who had been exposed to the Magners Specials advertising across both The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online. The multiplier effect of the cross-platform Mail brand is truly in evidence here.”
Kirsty Hunter, Marketing Director at Magners, commented: “This Sunday advertising strategy, with The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online at the centre of the campaign, has proved to be very successful for Magners Specials. The highly engaged nature of readership on a Sunday has provided real traction for the launch of Magners Specials and the research results are some of the strongest that we have seen for a launch.”
