Retail Report

There’s never been a more important time for newspapers to demonstrate their influence than in the current economic climate, when advertisers are rightfully demanding even greater accountability and ROI.

The Newspaper Works has embarked on a rigorous effectiveness programme, partnering with independent tracking and media research experts, Ipsos Media CT. This has resulted in the creation of an advertising effectiveness metric specifically designed for newspapers; one that’s sensitive to the particular characteristics of the medium, as well as exacting enough to put newspapers on par with other established media metrics in the marketplace.

The metric will be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from highly sophisticated case studies that can isolate the role of newspapers in a multimedia campaign, through to creative benchmarking.

This report, the first in a series to be released by The Newspaper Works this year, focuses on creative benchmarking within the retail category. Thirty-six retail ads have been tested, drawing on nearly 2,500 consumer interviews from across Australia and with over 7,000 advertising observations collected.

Retail Report key findings

  • ALDI and Ikea were the clear winners, not only performing well as retail ads, but also helping to build their brands, scoring the best on both brand equity impact and brand affinity measures.
  • Woolworths clearly outperformed Coles ads on ad recognition and brand linkage.
  • David Jones’ Megan Gale ads outperformed ads by Myer featuring Jennifer Hawkins, on ad recognition and brand linkage.
  • ‘Cluttered’ ads for Bunnings, Dan Murphy’s and Officeworks also ranked well on ad recognition, brand linkage and brand equity impact, plus Call to Action.
  • Qantas’ retail-style ads were highly recognisable and delivered on both a retail and brand level.
  • Many successful retailers built a strong link between TV and newspaper ad campaigns including David Jones, Bunnings, Woolworths, Jetstar and Target.

If you’re interested in the complete results of any individual ad mentioned in this study, please contact The Newspaper Works. Otherwise, download the full 32-page report and the presentation below.

March 2009


How Retail Advertising in Newspapers works best (2m, Acrobat (.pdf) format)

Full 32-page report.

How Retail Advertising in Newspapers works best (6m, PowerPoint (.ppt) format)

Presentation with key findings and a full set of case studies from the Retail report.