Front Page Sticky Notes, Lowest ‘NOTICE COST’

As compared to the cost of radio, TV or direct mail, Sticky Note Ads on the front page of a newspaper are the most efficient way your customer can have their message noticed by a large audience in a marketplace.  The following formula and discussion of actual “Notice Cost” for a broadcast medium is important to share with your customer in presenting Sticky Note Ads on your front page.  NOTICE COST = % Reach in market x cost of medium x % of audience who will notice the ad.

Whatever broadcast method your customer may choose, it’s impossible to find a medium that is noticed by more than a small % of their audience at one time for a reasonable cost.  Compare the market-share your paper has to the market share of any radio or TV station?  And more importantly, what is the chance that the ad will be, not just heard, but noticed?  As compared to direct mail, the cost of a Front Page note is approximately a third and logically much more read when stuck on the front page of a newspaper vs. a mailer amid the clutter of one’s normal daily mail; a much higher chance of being ‘noticed’.

So here’s the question for your customer; what is the value to an advertiser to have their message received and noticed by a qualified prospect or customer?  I’m not including the discount or offer that makes them buy, just consider the cost of getting the printed message in their hands.  What is the most effective way to ‘shout from the rooftops’, “I’m having a sale” and have it noticed by the most people for the least amount of money?  There is no pure broadcast medium that is heard or read by everyone… so what’s the best compromise?

Consider the following; if your customer could reach 35% of your market with a medium that would be noticed by half of that 35%, then you know their message is being noticed by 17.5% of their targeted audience.  If you take the average cost of a front page note as $.10 per home and divide that amount by the 17.5% you have a net cost of $.57 per reader.   Challenge your customer to find another medium that will be noticed by such a large portion of their market for such a low cost.  Take direct mail as an example, they may reach 100% of an audience at a cost of $.35 ea., but how many recipients will notice that ad and remember it later?  A Post-it Note ad that ran on the Detroit Free Press was remembered by more than 50% of the readers the following day based on a phone survey by an independent group.

Good luck as you present Front Page Sticky Notes, let us know if you need samples, testimonials or any other sales tools.

Post by John Grantham

* www.mediapro.foliomag.com, David M. Kalman on May 29, 2009.
** http://roberthheath.blogspot.com/2009/11/newspaper-circulation.html
***NoteAds/3M research from Detroit Newpaper test, 1999.