A free sampler was made available to The Mail on Sunday readers on 6th April 2014 and as a digital version to Mail Plus subscribers.
DC Thomson Head of Circulation (Magazines) Iain McKenzie explains, “The Beano saw a 25% sales uplift in its April 12th issue which succeeded the sampler. In addition to this, we have also seen a boost in subscriptions with around 1,400 additional subscribers signing up.”
The sampler issue of The Beano saw Dennis the Menace engage, TV star and survivalist, Bear Grylls to help in the search for his missing dog, Gnasher.
The special issue also gave readers an exclusive first look at a map of Beanotown using an app which allowed readers to ‘blipp’ between the print edition and beano.com where the map is hosted. On Sunday 6th April, say the publishers, beano.com saw an elevation in site traffic of almost four times its average site visitors, 70% of those visits were new visitors. The website has also maintained a 100% higher than average visitor rate since 6th April 2014.
The Beano Editor-in-Chief Michael Stirling said, “The sampler was part of an ongoing four week campaign, where our readers helped us search for Gnasher after he disappeared from The Beano. It’s been an exciting way for us to engage with new fans and the sales and website traffic increases are a fantastic result. We’re just happy Gnasher is back in The Beano where he belongs. Reuniting him with Dennis was the biggest success of the campaign! We’ve gained new readers with each new weekly issue, and it really goes to show that The Beano is still everyone’s favourite comic.”
DC Thomson Head of Advertising (Magazines), Andrew Williams added, “In such a challenging marketplace this result sends a positive message about the strength of The Beano brand to advertisers.”
