MNI Blog  /  2 minute read

It’s A Wrap – The Print Version of Native Generates Engagement And ROI For B2B

The most interesting conversations I have with media buying and marketing folk often lack the well-worn language. We’ve managed whole conversations without uttering the words ‘engagement,’ ‘transparency,’ ‘hyper-targeted,’ analytics,’ ‘story-telling,’

Connie Wrap

By: Corinne Lynch, Director of Time Inc. Cover Wraps

The most interesting conversations I have with media buying and marketing folk often lack the well-worn language. We’ve managed whole conversations without uttering the words ‘engagement,’ ‘transparency,’ 

‘hyper-targeted,’ analytics,’ ‘story-telling,’ ‘data,’ or ‘platform.’ Yet, magazine cover wraps deliver all of that.

The conversations are usually around the ticklish problem of the B2B strategy. The most notable challenge in starting and maintaining a conversation with a needle-in-a-haystack is that most media channels aren’t the solution. Many over-deliver the wrong audience and under-deliver the right one.

Enter the freshest old idea you’ve never heard of: co-branding your story on all four covers of the best known magazines in the world. Sound daunting and expensive? It’s neither. Why not? Because your story is told only to that rarified, super-duper target that is exactly the customer or prospect you need to reach.  By using your CRM or MNI’s list-development specialist, you get a distilled list that’s ‘hyper-targeted’ so you can deliver your message on a ‘platform’ with guaranteed ‘high engagement’ and superb ‘story-telling.’

Think of it as a hybrid subscription using direct marketing as your personal cover story. Here’s a real life example: Let’s say you’re a travel destination and you want to reach meeting planners from large tech companies. This is different from your consumer target, which is anyone with a credit card and a pulse. You start by working with us to identify a list by job title and company. Then, we jointly land on your ideal audience: the top 1,000-10,000 people who are decision-makers at tech companies who book meetings and conventions. After a careful opt-in process, your message is delivered—on all four covers of their magazines—right to their desks. It’s simple but unforgettable. Your list of meeting planners is now receiving and reacting to your tailor-made content, and they’re being influenced by it. How do we know? We ask them. A custom survey is part of the program. We ask the recipients two-thirds of the way through their subscription what they think, whether they’re inclined to pick your destination, and whether they want to hear from you. A typical response rate is between 3.5% and 10%—giving you valuable ‘data’ and ‘analytics’ to grow your business and generate leads. What kind of data? An aggregate of survey results for the last three years indicates 70% of recipients agreed that the wraps helped the company stand out from their competition; 29% shared the cover wrap with a colleague or friend; 18% visited the client’s website and 9% contacted the advertiser directly.

We’ve helped hundreds of companies grow their business and find new prospects—they range from tech, banking, travel, manufacturing, franchise, retail, consumer packaged goods and more—some with really tricky targets, like our longtime CPG client whose target is ‘ingredient purchase decision makers for food companies.’ They want to reach that person whose job it is to decide which kinds of nuts live in your cereal bar or granola. 

Yep, we got that one covered.

How can we help cover you?  Contact Corinne.lynch@mni.com to learn more.