1. The IPA Databank study 2017 Business effectiveness
Analysis of UK IPA effectiveness case studies
This study looks at the recent business effectiveness of UK print and digital newsbrands. It cannot be compared with similar studies that analyse media effectiveness across the entire global database since 1980.
Peter Field analysed 108 UK cases from the IPA effectiveness awards databank, (52% of all entries for this period), to look at the business effectiveness of UK newsbrands. Total cases = 84 using newsbrands, compared with 24 non-users:
57 using print
71 using digital newsbrands
44 using both print and digital newsbrands
All data is based on reported “very large” business effects.

2. Peter Field
Peter spent 15 years as a strategic planner in advertising and has been a marketing consultant for the last 18 years. Effectiveness case study analysis underpins much of his work, which includes a number of important marketing and advertising texts: Marketing in the Era of Accountability, The Long & The Short of it, Brand Immortality, The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness and a chapter of the Sage Handbook of Advertising. He is also a contributor to the Wharton Future of Advertising Project. Peter writes and speaks regularly around the world about marketing effectiveness. He is an honorary Fellow of the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

3. Definitions and sample sizes
108 UK cases analysed
(excludes 59 international, 32 not-for-profit and 8 UK cases with incomplete data):
Newsbrand print users 57
Non-users 51
Newsbrand digital users 71
Non-users 37
Newsbrand print + digital users 44
Non-users of both 24
Total newsbrand users 84
Non-users 24
Newsbrand print users:
more than 8% of budget
Newsbrand digital users:
more than 0.01% of budget
Non-users:
didn’t use/light or passing use
Peter Field looked at the most recent cases in the IPA databank so we could get a clear picture of the impact of newsbrands in the modern media environment, where digital and social platforms are adequately represented as well as the more traditional media.
This study looks at business effectiveness of UK print and digital newsbrands for It cannot be compared with similar studies that analyse media effectiveness across the entire global database since 1980.
There are too few complete non-users of newsbrand media amongst IPA case studies, but fortunately there are a good number of campaigns that made light or passing use of newsbrand media. We have called these “non-users”. All not-for profit cases were excluded.
These are compared with ‘users’ who have spent over the following thresholds:
8% of total media budget for print newsbrands
0.01% of total budget for digital newsbrands
In total, 84 cases were included, broken down as shown.
Analysis focused on very large business effects only.
The scale of a business effect is assessed by the case study author (in the compulsory questionnaire filled in by all IPA Effectiveness Awards entrants) as being ‘very large’, ‘large/substantial’ or ‘small/negligible’. In this analysis only ‘very large’ effects are included - previous analysis by Les Binet and Peter Field for IPA Datamine 2 showed there was a high correlation between very large business effects and ROI:
Campaigns reporting any very large business effects reported 620% average ROI vs 390% for campaigns not reporting very large business effects
The correlation between the number of very large business effects and market share gain is very strong: significant at the 99% confidence level
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

4. Newsbrands are at a significant disadvantage in proving effectiveness
Disadvantage for newsbrands
Smaller overall budgets (awards skewed to big budget campaigns)
Very low ESOV
Short-term cases, especially print
New/small brands
Value/mainstream brands
Less likely to be emotional
Advantage for newsbrands
More service sector brands
Before we get into the results of the analysis, there are a few preliminary notes about the two samples of newsbrand users and non-users. Over the years Peter Field and colleagues have identified and validated key campaign characteristics that are most likely to drive effectiveness.
In this analysis, the newsbrand group of cases starts out with a number of disadvantages, particularly for print.
The most important is a severe ESOV disadvantage – we know that an excess share of voice when compared with market share is associated with greater campaign effectiveness.
The cases including newsbrands in the IPA database are also more likely to be short-term and for new, small and value brands – again these are generally less effective than longer-term cases and established big, premium brands. They are also less likely to be emotional, a long-term disadvantage.
There is one efficiency advantage for newsbrands - there are more cases in the services sector – and fewer in FMCG.
Given these characteristics, we are confident that the findings for newspaper brands are robust and substantial.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

5. Campaigns using newsbrands are 36% more likely to deliver profit
Multi-platform newsbrands are delivering widespread business effects for brands
Campaigns using newsbrands are 43% more likely to deliver market share growth
Campaigns using newsbrands are more than twice as likely to deliver a reduction in price sensitivity
Campaigns using newsbrands are more than twice as likely to deliver an increase in customer loyalty
UK newsbrands are a powerful weapon in the battle against short-termism, because they deliver growth in very large business effects that are vital to long-term brand success. It’s not just about immediate sales at any cost. Campaigns that use newsbrands are significantly more likely to drive sustainable share growth, attracting new customers but also increasing loyalty among existing customers. They reduce price sensitivity and therefore reduce the need to rely on short-term cost-cutting promotions. This means bigger profits.
One of the key contributors to short-termism has been the rise of digital, with its instant numbers and real-time trackability. But not all digital is equal. Digital newsbrands work differently – they provide the right context to drive the same powerful business effects as print does. We know from Lumen eye-tracking research that newsbrand sites attract more in-depth attention, with double the viewing time per page than non-newsbrand sites, which in turn gives 60% higher viewable time for ads and an average dwell time per ad that is 30% higher. This quality, high attention context provides a favourable environment for delivering longer-term business effects as well as sales.
What’s more, UK newsbrands have a unique advantage – both print and digital platforms perform very well in delivering these important business effects, but the combination of print and digital formats provides advertisers with a very strong multiplier effect.
Campaigns using newsbrands are 36% more likely to deliver profit
Campaigns using newsbrands are 85% more likely to drive customer acquisition
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

6. Multi-platform newsbrands boost the effectiveness of other media
Newsbrands make TV 54% more effective
Newsbrands make online video 50% more effective
The updated analysis shows very clearly that newsbrands are a highly effective multiplier for other media. Not only do they drive effects such as share growth, penetration and profit in their own right, but they also make other media in the schedule perform more effectively. This is seen both with “Legacy” media such as TV, where newsbrands increase business effectiveness by 54% and with key digital media.
Once again, having the quality environment of newsbrands in the mix makes other digital media work harder. There are several potential reasons for this, which we will continue to explore. But we already have strong evidence that longer attention times (Lumen eye-tracking, MOAT for WMG) plus the impact on brand perceptions of the trusted newsbrand context (The company you keep research), might prime people to respond more positively to seeing the advertising in social media, other online display etc
Newsbrands make online display 24% more effective
Newsbrands make social media twice as effective
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

7. There is a significant context effect from using digital newsbrands
Adding online display to TV increases business effectiveness by 17% +
Adding digital newsbrands increases the multiplier effect by 60% +
A really powerful example of the strength and difference of digital newsbrands is the impact they have in combination with TV advertising. When TV is coupled with online display on sites that are non-newsbrands the impact on business effects is much smaller than when digital newsbrands are included in the online mix. Given the issues surrounding programmatic and algorithms, there is a strong brand health case for being much more selective in digital media. This IPA databank analysis suggests that there is also a very strong business case.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

8. The latest data has seen a huge increase in the use of digital newsbrands without print
Whereas in 2012 and 2014 the split was fairly even, in 2016 Effectiveness awards cases there was a major swing towards using digital newsbrands without any print in the campaign.
This trend is worrying for advertisers, as they will be missing out on the very strong multiplier effect that comes from using newsbrands across platform in campaigns (using both print and digital newsbrands in the campaign mix delivers 3.5 times the uplift in very large business effects of using just one platform.)
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

9. However, digital newsbrand cases buck the rise of short-termism
Average 24%
Analysis of the overall database clearly shows that short-term campaigns – those of less than six months duration – are less effective at delivering a range of very large business effects (and especially profit) than longer-term campaigns.
Yet there is a tendency towards short-termism. Over a third of recent campaigns that include print newsbrands are short-term. This is short-sighted, as it is really under-utilising the power of print, which is most effective and efficient at delivering long-term business effects such as profit.
More encouragingly, campaigns that use digital newsbrands are much more likely to be longer term, which will help optimise business effectiveness.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

10. Print is becoming more effective over time
Everyone knows that newspaper print circulations have declined, (though over 14 million people do still read a print edition daily, which is still a significant proportion of the UK population, especially considering much-hyped digital sites like Buzzfeed only reach 163k daily, according to NRS PADD).
But does a decline in scale mean a decline in effectiveness? Clearly not. Just as growing digital numbers in themselves don’t mean heightened impact on brand business results.
Overall, ad effectiveness is in decline.
But this latest analysis shows that in fact, print effectiveness is growing over time across key business measures. This is also apparent for other “legacy media” – as digital media expands, TV, newspapers and the like are actually working harder in the media mix.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases) compares users of print to non-users, data aggregated over 6 years for robust sample sizes

11. Print is increasingly effective at delivering new customers
There is often an assumption that digital channels are most appropriate for bringing in new customers, especially those trendy digital natives who apparently don’t watch, listen to or read “traditional media”. But the data shows that in fact print is increasingly effective at delivering new customers to brand advertisers. Campaigns including print were 39% more effective at delivering new customers than campaigns without print in the 6 years ending But this rose to a hefty 67% differential in the 6 years to 2016.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases) compares users of print to non-users, data aggregated over 6 years for robust sample sizes

12. Print is delivering greater market share uplifts over time
Print newsbrands are highly effective at delivering market share. There is an upward trend for print to deliver very large uplifts in market share.
(The risk is that, if short-termism takes an even stronger hold among advertisers and agencies, media effectiveness will be severely compromised. This is a particular concern for print newsbrands, as over a third of 2016 cases using print are already short-term)
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases) compares users of print to non-users, data aggregated over 6 years for robust sample sizes

13. Two are better than one, there is a significant multiplier effect from using print and digital in combination
There is increasing evidence that using more than one newsbrand platform delivers more than the sum of two parts. In our 2016 multi-platform brand health study (newsworks.org.uk/effectiveness), we saw that print plus digital newsbrands produce a 3.4 times multiplier effect on brand health measures.
This is almost exactly mirrored by Peter Field’s latest analysis of the business effects delivered by newsbrands. Using both print and digital newsbrands in the campaign mix delivers 3.5 times the uplift in very large business effects of using just one platform.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

14. And the multiplier effect is getting stronger Two newsbrand platforms
The multiplier effect is also growing. Just looking at the last two effectiveness awards, we can see that using both print and digital more than doubles the uplift in business effects compared with campaigns who don’t use newsbrands at all.
Two newsbrand platforms
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

15. Business effects in detail: print newsbrands
Campaigns including print newsbrands are particularly successful at delivering increases in customer acquisition, loyalty and profit. They also deliver increases in market share – but the increase in the proportion of short-term campaigns using print in 2016 means that this advantage is perhaps not being fully exploited by advertisers and their agencies.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

16. Business effects in detail: digital newsbrands
Campaigns that include digital newsbrands deliver widespread increases in business effects. The increased use of digital newsbrands for longer-term campaigns in 2016 has helped to exploit their effectiveness.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)

17. Business effects in detail by number of newsbrand platforms
There is increasing evidence that using more than one newsbrand platform delivers more than the sum of two parts. In our 2016 multi-platform brand health study (newsworks.org.uk/effectiveness), we saw that print plus digital newsbrands produce a 3.4 times multiplier effect on brand health measures.
This is almost exactly mirrored by Peter Field’s latest analysis of the business effects delivered by newsbrands. Using both print and digital newsbrands in the campaign mix delivers 3.5 times the uplift in very large business effects of using just one platform.

18. Conclusions
The danger of short-termism is that it focuses on immediate sales without protecting the long term health of the brand
A more balanced approach is required for maximum business effectiveness and ongoing brand value
Campaigns using newsbrands are just as likely to deliver sales as campaigns that don’t use newsbrands
But the difference is that adding newsbrands to a campaign means it is significantly more likely to deliver sustainable business benefits such as market share growth, customer acquisition and loyalty, protection of price premium and profit
Newsbrands improve the business effectiveness of a raft of other media, including TV, online display and video and social media
One of the simplest ways to improve the business effectiveness of online digital display is to include digital newsbrands: their quality environment drives profits, not just clicks
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (52% of all cases)