PPA Call For Mag Ad Bureau

At the PPA Conference held on Tuesday 3 May, there were calls for a “Magazine Advertising Bureau”, to promote the magazine industry as a whole to advertisers, in a similar way to the Radio Advertising Bureau.

The consumer press session addressed the response to last year’s challenge which was decided on at the conference; magazine publishers were asked to provide tangible evidence that they can and do actually get results. First to speak was Christine Walker, chief executive of Zenith Media.

Christine began by pointing out the paradox of magazines, in that in general, circulations are healthy and cover prices have remained ahead of the RPI, yet the sector’s share of advertising revenue is at an all time low. AA figures put the consumer magazine share of ad spend for 1992 at 5.4%. Zenith believe this figure will at best remain static for 1993. Christine praised the idea of the Magazines Make Things Happen campaign; however, she pointed out that there is still a need for industry backed research that links the main strengths of magazines, reader relationship and environment, with advertising effectiveness. The research has to be industry-wide because research from an individual publisher is always viewed with cynicism.

She pointed out that radio, the traditional 2% medium, helped by the Radio Advertising Bureau, is making great progress, and was the fastest growing medium of 1993. Zenith forecast that TV will continue to take revenue from magazines. Questions afterwards showed a lot of support for a generic body to sell the medium as a whole, and a general agreement that something needs to be done. As Andrew Brown, from British Bakeries said in summing up, “Market growth rather than brand share is what you have to aim at”.