1. THE IPA DATABANK STUDY 2019 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 146 UK cases from the IPA effectiveness awards databank, (62% of all entries for this period), to look at the business effectiveness of UK newsbrands. Total cases = 111 using newsbrands, compared with 35 non-users:
70 using print
96 using digital newsbrands
55 using both print and digital newsbrands
All data is based on reported “very large” business effects.

2. DEFINITIONS AND SAMPLE SIZES
146 UK cases analysed
(excludes international, not-for-profit and some UK cases with incomplete data):
Newsbrand print users 70
Non-users 76
Newsbrand digital users 96
Non-users 50
Newsbrand print + digital users 55
Non-users of both 35
Total newsbrand users 111
Non-users 45
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, 111 user 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 (62% of all cases)

3. 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 (62% of all cases)

4. MULTI-PLATFORM NEWSBRANDS ARE DELIVERING WIDESPREAD BUSINESS EFFECTS FOR BRANDS
Campaigns using newsbrands are 37% 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 over three times more 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 9% more likely to drive sales
Campaigns using newsbrands are 58% more likely to deliver profit
Campaigns using newsbrands are 50% more likely to drive customer acquisition
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

5. MULTI-PLATFORM NEWSBRANDS BOOST THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OTHER MEDIA
Newsbrands make TV 66% more effective
Newsbrands make online video 81% 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 66% 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 36% more effective
Newsbrands make social media over two times as effective
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

6. THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT CONTEXT EFFECT FROM USING DIGITAL NEWSBRANDS+
Adding online display to TV increases business effectiveness by 41% + +
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.
Adding digital newsbrands increases the multiplier effect by 82%
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

7. AFTER A HUGE INCREASE PREVIOUSLY IN THE USE OF DIGITAL NEWSBRANDS WITHOUT PRINT, THE LATEST DATA HAS SEEN STABILITY
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, and that has stayed the same for the 2018 awards.
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 2.7 times the uplift in very large business effects of using just one platform.)
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

8. HOWEVER, DIGITAL NEWSBRAND CASES BUCK THE RISE OF SHORT-TERMISM
Average 22%
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 (62% of all cases)

9. PRINT IS BECOMING MORE EFFECTIVE OVER TIME
Everyone knows that newspaper print circulations have declined, (though 11.9 million people do still read a print edition daily, which is still a significant proportion of the UK population, according to PAMCo (Jan '18 - Dec '18)).
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 (62% of all cases) compares users of print to non-users, data aggregated over 6 years for robust sample sizes

10. 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 almost a third of cases using print are already short-term)
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases) compares users of print to non-users, data aggregated over 6 years for robust sample sizes

11. 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 2.7 times the uplift in very large business effects of using just one platform.
Both of these figures have increased since Peter’s last analysis two years ago, when they were 14% and 49% respectively.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

12. AND THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT IS GETTING STRONGER Two newsbrand platforms
The multiplier effect is also growing. Just looking at the last two effectiveness awards versus the previous two we can see that using both print and digital almost 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 (62% of all cases)

13. 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 some increases in sales and are almost on a par when it comes to market share – but the increase in the proportion of short-term campaigns using print in 2016 and 2018 means that this advantage is perhaps not being fully exploited by advertisers and their agencies.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

14. 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 and 2018 has helped to exploit their effectiveness.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

15. 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 2.7 times the uplift in very large business effects of using just one platform. And this is true for all of the business effects measured in the IPA databank.
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)

16. CONCLUSIONS
While newsbrands (especially print) continue to be used for short-term gains, this does not stop newsbrands from helping to deliver business effects
Campaigns using newsbrands are more likely to deliver sales than campaigns that don’t use newsbrands
Adding newsbrands to a campaign means it is significantly more likely to deliver sustainable benefits across all key business effects measured: market share growth, customer acquisition and loyalty, protection of price premium, profit and sales
Using both print and digital newsbrands together continues to be very effective – use of two platforms produces a business effect uplift 2.7 times higher than use of one platform, and the multiplier effect continues to increase
Newsbrands impressively amplify 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: they provide a quality, profitable environment
Source: IPA Databank UK case studies (62% of all cases)