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Brief
Condé Nast is one of the world’s leading publishers of consumer print and online titles with over 150 million readers across 23 countries, 84 websites and 127 print titles, such as Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Vanity Fair and Wired. Condé Nast is renowned for being one of the most innovative publishers, embracing a mutually supportive and synchronised portfolio of online and offline publications.
The explosion of the Internet as a media channel in the past decade has presented publishers of consumer titles with several key challenges, the most critical of which has been the movement of significant proportions of marketing communications budgets to the web. Faced with such a competitive landscape Condé Nast France understood the need to ensure that its print tiles (Vogue, Glamour, GQ, AD, and Men’s Vogue) engaged with readers on a deeper, more personal, and relevant level than ever before; this would help drive editorial satisfaction and brand relationship strength, which in turn would increase reader retention, unit sales and advertising revenue. As part of the strategy, the marketing team required a solution that would provide them with a deep and immersive understanding of its consumer audience.
Strategy
The insight team at Condé Nast France began its consumer immersion journey by firstly embracing the speed, and cost efficiencies, of online market research. Furthermore, Condé Nast realised that with huge volumes of web traffic to its brand sites, existing subscriber lists and the ability to use its print publications as a recruitment channel, it could utilise existing assets to convert individuals into a branded panel community.
The Toluna PanelPortal solution was selected based upon five key performance criteria, namely ease of use, speed to implement, support services & expertise, multi lingual support and scalability to integrate into future web community projects. With the Toluna PanelPortal platform Condé Nast was now equipped with an easy to use solution which would enable rapid, and highly effective, gathering of consumer insight. From the beginning Condé Nast embraced the potential of the Toluna PanelPortal and conducted research studies to solve a wide variety of business problems.
Execution
Core to the success of Condé Nast’s marketing strategy was the ability to reach out to the consumer on a more personal, and relevant, basis. Fostering deeper brand relationships between each title and its reader required more relevant content, but also the ability for the reader to have direct input into the development of the magazine. Using PanelPortal Condé Nast was able to deploy the initial structure of a co-creation platform between its readers and the magazine brands. Condé Nast is now able to test readership satisfaction with editorial before, or after, circulation. Article placement and headlines can now be refined to the needs of the readership base.
Results
Intimate reader connection
Condé Nast is also able to conduct ‘social readership studies’ where open ‘qualitative’ responses from readers are collected across a range of personal experiences, attitudes and intimate feelings. Condé Nast can now publish these opinions and experiences to connect, on a more intimate level, with its readers.
Published survey results
As part of its efforts to increase editorial satisfaction Condé Nast is able to publish the results of reader surveys month by month. Users are encouraged to participate in these surveys via print articles. Furthermore, Condé Nast can now use such findings for public relations purposes.
Cover and advertising testing
Key to a magazine’s success is, of course, its cover; how well this cover grabs the eye, and cuts through the clutter of competitive titles on the average retailer’s shelf, massively impacts upon the sales of the title. Condé Nast is now able to select specific c members of its panel, matching the required profiling characteristics needed for such a study, and invite the members to rate cover options before the final is chosen to print. Using PanelPortal’s questionnaire creation tool, questions can be laid out next to the images of covers or any one of its titles.
Advertising testing
Part of Condé Nast’s marketing strategy was to add a greater degree of audience insight to advertisers in order to drive revenue. Using PanelPortal, Condé Nast is now also able to provide post test effectiveness services to its advertisers. Aided and un-aided recall of specific ads or brands, attitude to ad / brand and other such tests can now be provided to advertisers.
Competitor benchmarking
Toluna provides research professionals with access to the world’s most engaged panellists via its global panel communities. Using TolunaMedia™, one of Toluna’s specialist panels, Condé Nast is able to immediately access readers of its competitor’s titles, in order to conduct competitive benchmarking research studies via the use of online surveys.
Concluding client quote:
“We now have a platform where our readers are helping to shape the magazine’s direction”
Virginie Mary, Marketing Director, Condé Nast France.
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