A leading special interest magazine was successfully growing its subscriber base, but the average age of its audience was increasing. Ageing demographics made the publication less appealing to many advertisers, and acquisition programs targeting younger subscribers were not working. The publisher engaged Aventine Partners to explore the subscriber data base for new ideas to drive marketing initiatives to grow younger readers.
Approach
- Draw a sample of active and expired subscriber data and enhance it with third-party data
- Build analytic profiles of 18-to-34 subscribers and comparison groups of subscribers and target audiences
- Determine pockets of opportunity by indexing subscriber penetration of the target population at various geographic levels
- Examine retention patterns and changes in subscriber characteristics over time
- Identify potential unrecognized or under-targeted subscriber segments
Results
Aventine Partners was able to develop and recommend a multi-pronged strategy for growing the younger audience and lowering the average age. Components of the strategy included:
- Fine tuning existing direct marketing programs with geographic criteria to improve efficiency
- Targeting non-traditional segments to tap into new pockets of younger subscribers
- Developing retention programs directed at younger and other high-value subscribers
- Adopting a pricing strategy linked to subscriber contribution to advertiser value
