KAFFEINE / Arts & Culture, Lifestyle, Placemaking, Retail & Property , Travel & Tourism

The power of regional newspaper advertising for national cut through

16 February 2023

If you want to reach a national audience via the national press, you’ll miss over half of all newspapers readers who never pick up a national paper.   

Of all newspapers readers in the UK, 65% only read a regional paper, and these readers tend to be older (over 45 years old), ABC1 and are the main shoppers in their household.  This audience spends around £166m on groceries each month and spent about £1.1bn on travelling, day trips, holidays and short breaks over the past year *.

This makes the regional media a very effective advertising medium to reach a highly valuable audience – not just for regional brands, but also those London or other big city brands that depend on inbound travellers and tourists as part of their core audience over the year – and many will be considering it a vital part of advertising to drive footfall around the Coronation.  

So, how do you book and amplify your presence in the regional media in a cost-effective way? 

Kallaway’s media buying team is working with The National Media, a company that enables media planners to reach a readership of 2m across the country through one media booking that delivers content into the leading 30 paid for regional titles in the UK - including London’s Evening Standard. 

This approach simplifies artwork, optimises positioning in the titles and maximises budgets; only one piece of artwork is needed for all titles and the same positional guarantees run across all 30 titles (e.g. front half of the paper) and booking costs are approximately 30% less than approaching the individual regional media independently and buying advertising piecemeal.

However, one of the best ways to use the medium is via creative audience engagement other than advertising.  Opportunities range from advertorials and front page flashes directing people to the page with the ad, to competitions with bespoke online microsites.   

Regional media campaigns also work very well with earned news content.  For example if you’re launching a new film that will break in regional cinemas across the UK then by working with the National Media, the news story is likely to run in the same edition as the advert for the cinema / film itself.  This also works on a more localised level - for example news of an attraction opening could run in the local news but also be picked up more widely to run with the advert for the new venue. 

Kallaway’s Media Director, Rupert Bean, previously worked with the National Media on running a campaign for Gourmet Burger Kitchen, which ran a competition to win a trip to India. The editorial about the prize ran on the same page as the GBK advert across the 30 titles, maximising the brand’s exposure. 

Interested in learning more about the power of regional media advertising and how it could work for your brand? 

Speak to Rupert Bean, Media Director, abour your media plans: Book a call.