Are clients losing interest advertising in Sunday newspapers?

Are Sunday newspapers struggling to sell ad space? According to MediaWeek, the Mail on Sunday is trying to lure new or lapsed advertisers with a competition for £250,000 worth of free space.

To win, advertisers or their agencies must enter 500 words on why their brand should advertise on a Sunday (and why they want to engage with The MoS’s audience).

John Teal, advertising director at Mail Newspapers, said: “We are delighted to be providing an opportunity for a new or lapsed Sunday advertiser to take advantage of the unique communications properties which Sunday newspaper advertising brings.

“We want to fund four weeks of advertising within The MoS, a publication which over five million people invite into their precious Sundays every week, to prove how effective this medium is.”

In last month’s ABC release (for April), which was a bumper month for newspapers due to the Royal Wedding, the Sunday newspaper market was up 1.6% on March, but down 6.1% year on year.

The Sunday Express was the only title in our analysis to record an increase in circulation over the year, while most suffered a fairly substantial drop in sales.

So, is the Mail on Sunday‘s free ad space competition an innovative way to regain interest from advertisers? It is not new but it will be interesting to read the case study on how effective the £250k investment was for the new advertiser.

However, there still seems to be an inherent problem with clients’ perception of the potency of Sunday newspaper advertising.