A recent Wall St. Journal article describes how large newspaper companies are banding together to sell national deals across their Web sites. Apparently, newspaper websites are having trouble getting national advertisers interested in buying. NFL team sites are having the same problem. Maybe we should form a network too.
From WSJ: The venture is designed to help the chains tackle a vexing problem: They have long had trouble attracting national advertisers. In their print editions, this is largely because of price. Newspapers can jack up ad prices for local retailers that have few other ways to reach a hometown audience. But national advertisers often find it cheaper to buy a TV spot or magazine ad than to buy space in dozens of newspapers. National advertisers also account for about 75% of advertising on the Internet, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The newspaper industry has tried to sell national ads before. In 1994, the industry set up a national sales arm, the Newspaper National Network, to sell ads in certain categories that newspapers weren’t successfully selling. Most chains also attempt to sell national ads across their properties. Gannett has a team in Chicago that helps big advertisers buy in multiple Gannett papers. However, even with the national newspaper USA Today in its portfolio, national advertising represented only about 16% of Gannett’s newspaper advertising revenues during the first 11 months of 2006.
This story reinforces what I’ve been saying lately in this blog:
1. NFL teams need a strategy to connect with NATIONAL sponsors(75% of online ad dollars come from national brands).
2. Team sites are not successful selling national ads or sponsorships on their own - some teams have deals with national brands, but most (if not all) target localized fan bases, inside teams’ direct trade areas.
3. Many (if not all) teams have more “national” viewership than local (Here in Indy the ratio of visitors from outside Indiana to visitors from inside the state is 3:1)
4. NFL should consider forming a network of team sites to attract national advertisers - one purchase order needs to cover more ground. A network would combine our inventory and get more attention from media buyers.
The newspaper industry has demonstrated that national online ad dollars are difficult to win away from the portals. Clearly the portals are making it easy for national advertisers to buy eyeballs efficiently. That’s why I feel that we should concentrate on building up the QUALITY of our visitors more than the QUANTITY of our visitors.
I don’t think we should follow the newspapers down a rabbit hole and allow our websites to become commodity buys. So, instead of calling on media buyers and selling CPM and REACH, we should be calling on brand level executives and helping them tap the emotion of NFL fans. NFL web sites are EXPERIENCE ENVIRONMENTS as much as they are “news” sites. We should be helping brands get close enough to benefit from the “halo” effect of the NFL fan experience.
There is REAL value in online sponsorship, but it hasn’t been tapped effectively yet, especially on a national level. To get there we’re going to have to overcome many obstacles, both externally in the marketplace and internally, between the teams and the league office. But our opportunity is clear - 75% of our circulation is “unsponsored”. When you knit our sites together and show sponsors what they’re missing, I believe we’ll find national sponsor / partners ready to join us.
The possibility of a NFL ad network would make a lot of sense once they bring the NFL.com in house next fall.
MLBAM puts national advertising across all team sites…