what now for London newspaper promotions?

Now that the London Paper has blinked first can the London Lite be far behind in closing its doors? If it goes the same way promotional opportunities in London will significantly decline. They will revert back to The London Evening Standard (where most promotions are only attainable through the Standard card, previously the EROS card) and the Metro only. London Paper and London Lite have been cornering a mass market end of London promotions, especially those to do with going out and doing things in our great capital city. They have been driving redemptions ranging from minimal to very significant  for theatres, cafes, restaurants, clubs, exhibitions and anywhere a Londoner might want to escape for the night that otherwise had nowhere to go but Time Out. Now where will they go?

Sun and Mail eclipsed by the Star?

Two of the most aggressive and demanding newspaper brands are battling it out for middle England’s pennies. The Sun this week are giving away a series of middle England brand promotions, all spend related, from Lush to Thorntons, Halfords to Debenhams. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday on the other hand are giving £20 of Tesco vouchers away to every reader and offering readers the chance to take their kids to UK wide attractions for free.  Either set of promotions could sit quite nicely in the competitive title. In fact the Tesco promotion began life in the News of the World last year and was so successful that the new Mail Marketing Director, who used to work at the News of the World, has taken it with him and had similar success with it their.   
If the new ABC’s are an indication then both brands are holding their own with these type of promotional initiatives but the runaway success is the price cutting 20p Daily Star. Could it be that consumers want cheap rather than added value in a recession even if the added value actually saves them more money?

Fantasy Football is unleashed - yep, winter is here!

It’s that time of year again! Yep, just when you thought summer was here along comes the nation’s favourite winter sport, football. For newspapers this means one thing, Fantasy Football, and the chance to re-engage with young males who may have stopped buying the paper or stopped visiting the paper’s website during the long hot football-free summer.

Not only does Fantasy Football encourage young males who may otherwise pick up a free paper to buy a paper like The Telegraph or Sun on a weekly basis but it also incentivises them to visit the website to track their teams and make changes enabling the paper to commercial every visit. Many players in fact will never engage with a brand like the Telegraph unless it was through their fantasy games.

But it’s not for the fainthearted; The Times failed to relaunch their game last year in the face of fierce competition from the market leading Telegraph and Sun and have stuck with their more sophisticated Play the Game game this year. The Sun have a prize pool of £1m, The Star a measly £50k, The Telegraph £110k and the Mirror £150k and the Mail make a half hearted attempt with a platy £50k prize pool.

There are various gimmicks on board too, 2:1’s and free games versus paid for’s fuel the debate about how to make money from this loyalty driving interactive passion. May the best game win!