1. The multi-platform study
Brand health

2. We wanted to know… 1 2
How effective are campaigns that use multi-platform newsbrands versus those using just one platform?
How does each platform and each combination of platforms build brand responses?

3. Benchmark guidance for planning newsbrand campaigns
Our aim was to provide benchmark guidance on what each newsbrand platform contributed to brand health measures - on its own and in combination with others - that would help when deploying budgets

4. Matched controlled exposure study
What we did
Five multi-platform campaigns
Newsworks collaborated with media agencies to measure five client campaigns across newsbrand print and digital platforms. We worked with big brand advertisers, where brand metrics are harder to shift – and none were first time newsbrand advertisers
BDRC Continental were the research partners. We used a matched controlled exposure study among readers of the relevant titles as each campaign went live. The test sample was exposed to advertising and the control was not exposed.
Each platform was researched and analysed individually and in combination with every other platform. Each respondent read their usual title – and used the platform or platforms they would normally use. This gave us a very large and robust sample totalling 10,856 interviews.
We covered 13 brand health measures, ranging from awareness to consideration, to more emotional measures, such as brand warmth and trust:
We used analysis of variance to assess the impact of campaign exposure on brand health measures. This gave us the net uplift, taking into account competitor shifts, across all newsbrand platforms solus and in combinations.
Digital interactions data was supplied by publishers, collated by Newsworks and anonymised.
Matched controlled exposure study
10,856 sample
13 brand measures

5. How newsbrands work across platform
We found a consistent pattern of responses across all 5 tests:
Print is the most effective single platform for brand building
But print plus digital is a more efficient combination
The print and digital newsbrand combination has a strong multiplier effect – bigger than the sum of the individual platforms
As we will see later, campaign data shows that newsbrands’ digital platforms also provide a high quality context for driving high levels of engagement and interaction.
Effective brand building
Even more effective brand building

6. Print + digital newsbrands = 3.4 times multiplier effect
+17%
Print + digital newsbrands = 3.4 times multiplier effect
+5%
Average uplift across brand health measures
Across the five campaigns, we found that print newspapers increased brand health measures by 5%. There is also consistent evidence that exposure to print advertising primes readers to respond more positively to digital advertising. Print plus one other digital newsbrand platform increased brand health measures by an average of 17%.
It is not simply the effect of being exposed twice rather than just once – the uplift is almost 3 ½ times higher and is only seen when one of the exposures is print
Print
Print + digital

7. Multiplier effect is dependent on print being in the mixv
+5%
Multiplier effect is dependent on print being in the mix
Print
+17%
Average uplift across brand health measures
Print + digital
+3%
Exposure to ads in digital newsbrands also has an impact on brand health – on average 3% for each digital platform on its own.
However, there is no evidence that exposure on multiple digital platforms has a multiplier effect – consistently we find that print is needed to kick-start this process.
Multiple digital

8. Multiplier effect is strongest with computer and tablet
+24%
+5%
+7%
+21%
+23% v
Multiplier effect is strongest with computer and tablet
Average uplift across brand health measures
Print
Print + smartphone
Print + computer
Print + tablet
Print + computer + tablet
The strongest 2-platform impact on brand measures is print and tablet, followed closely by the print and pc combination. Smartphone adds a little brand building power – but this is not the main strength of mobile in the mix, as we will discuss later when we look at digital interaction rates.

9. • Spontaneous awareness
Brand-building strengths of print newsbrands
• Salience
• Spontaneous awareness
• Innovative
Looking at the reasons why print is so powerful, we find that print solus is particularly effective at raising perceived brand salience (seen/heard a lot about) and spontaneous awareness. Perhaps contrary to assumptions, print is also the platform which most confers a sense of innovation on the advertised brand.

10. Brand-building strengths of multiple newsbrand platforms+ + +
• Salience +60%
• Salience +52%
• Salience +27%
• Innovative +34%
• Worth paying extra for +43%
• Awareness +26%
• Awareness +31%
• Quality +31%
• Quality +24%
Each print and digital combination builds slightly different brand strengths – although the powerful influence of print can be seen in all dual platform combinations with the strong impact on brand salience and spontaneous awareness.
Tablet is really interesting – on its own, it primarily affects brand quality perceptions – but in combination with print, it is the most powerful multiplier.
Print plus smartphone has the lowest multiplier effect on brand building measures – but that’s not really surprising as smartphone’s role is more suited to activation
• Awareness +31%
• Trustworthy +19%
• Trustworthy +30%

11. Benchmarking the effects – towards a ready reckoner
In order to provide guidance for the likely impact of newsbrand campaigns, we need to look at the size of various reader groups - how many are reading print solus, how many are reading only on mobile devices, how many are multi-platform readers – and on how many devices.

12. Coverage build across newsbrand platforms
Computer only campaign
34.4m
Print only campaign
34.5m
Mobile only
campaign
38m
Mobile + computer
38.8m
Print + computer
45.8m
Print + mobile
46.9m
Print + computer + mobile campaign
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ‘16
Coverage build across newsbrand platforms
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ‘16
First we need to look at the numbers of readers that a campaign running on different newsbrand platforms will reach in a month. These are the latest NRS PADD figures. We can’t split out tablet and smartphone on NRS, so we will refer to them both as mobile.
A computer only campaign will reach 15.6million readers, and a campaign that runs across print, computer and mobile will reach just under 47 million readers in a month.

13. Newsbrand readership by platform
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ’16
Then we need to look at how many people read on more than one platform.
This shows how platforms overlap. For example, 8.9million people are only reading print – so cannot be affected by the multiplier effect. Whereas 14.3 million are reading on mobile as well as in print – and a further 8.8 million are reading on all platforms – so these would all be affected, to a greater or lesser degree, by the newsbrand multiplier effect.
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ‘16

14. Campaign impact on brand health measures by platform
+21%
+4%
+3%
+11%
+5%
2.4m
8.8m
3.4m
1.1m
8.1m
14.3m
8.9m
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ’16
We can model the brand uplift effects for each of the readership segments.
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ‘16

15. Campaign impact ready reckoner
Average uplift across brand health measures among total newsbrand audience as each platform is added:
+1.2%
+3.7%
+2.2%
+2.7%
+7.8%
+7.4%
+10.1%
33%
73%
74%
81%
83%
98%
100%
15.6m
34.4m
34.5m
38m
38.8m
45.8m
46.9m
Our ready reckoner then puts audience size, multi-platform readership patterns and impact on brand health measures together, to show the projected uplift among the total newsbrand audience for campaigns on each of the platforms and platform combinations. Newsbrand readers represent about 90% of all adults. As we can see here, a print only campaign will reach 73% of the audience – and among these readers the average impact on brand health measures will be 5%. But not everybody in the newsbrand audience reads print, so the overall impact will be an uplift of 3.7%. By adding computer and mobile, a campaign will reach 100% of readers and also benefit from the multiplier effect – so brand health measures are anticipated to increase by just over 10%.
Computer only campaign
Print only campaign
Mobile only
campaign
Mobile + computer
campaign
Print + computer
campaign
Print + mobile
campaign
Print + computer + mobile campaign
Source: NRS PADD inc Mobile Devices Apr’15-Mar ‘16 + comScore Mar ‘16

16. Digital newsbrands drive interactions
Smartphone drives the highest level of interaction
Industry Benchmark
All newsbrand digital platforms outperformed industry benchmarks for click-through rates.
While print, tablet and computer have the strongest effect on brand values, newsbrand advertising on smartphone drives the highest level of interaction.
CTR average
0.31
0.94
1.11
0.07

17. Digital newsbrands command high attention
Attention and engagement is vital in today’s multi-media environment. The interaction time with digital newsbrand ads – as measured by MOAT analytics in was an impressive 10 seconds. This obviously varied by campaign – ads which specifically encouraged deeper engagement witnessed interaction times of up to 16 seconds.
Interaction time = Average length of time the user interacted with the ad when they entered the frame of the ad for at least 0.5 secs
10 seconds average

18. How newsbrands work across platform to build brand health
Print is effective at brand building and also primes the multi-platform reader
Digital platforms need print to activate
Different platforms impact on different metrics - use of all helps maximise brand effect
All newsbrand digital platforms command attention and drive online interactions - smartphone is the most effective
There is a significant multiplier effect when people are exposed to a campaign in print plus at least one digital newsbrand platform - Print is effective at brand building in its own right and also primes the multi-platform reader to respond more positively to the campaign on digital platforms
There is a limited multiplier effect across the different digital platforms, they need print to activate:
- using only digital platforms – smartphone, tablet and computer – will add reach and increase online interactions, but not improve brand health measures further
Different platforms impact on different metrics
- as well as adding reach, use of all newsbrand platforms helps maximise brand effect
All newsbrand digital platforms exceed benchmarks for driving online interactions
- smartphone is the most effective