Of Babies & Bathwater
The Advertising Value of Verified

by Rebecca McPheters
August 13, 2007

The opening salvo of the 2008 planning season was fired recently when a major automotive advertiser communicated through its RFP (request for proposal) an unwillingness to pay for verified circulation. Beginning in 2006, publishers began reporting most of their public place distribution as “verified” on their ABC statements. While advertisers are right to expect proof of verified quality, they undermine their own efforts by incentivizing publishers – as this advertiser is doing – to eliminate what is often the single most valuable component of the circulation mix.

I am enormously concerned with the trend to discredit the value of public place distribution, and I fear that publishers themselves may become complicit in moving the industry in a direction that is neither in their own nor in their advertisers’ best interest. We have already seen examples of publishers eliminating public place distribution in attempts to convince advertisers of the quality of their circulation, and RFPs like the one described above may intensify this trend. As a result, we can readily foresee a decline in publishers’ ability to bring qualified audiences to advertisers’ messages.

When used appropriately, a single public place copy can produce 30-50 readers - a substantial multiple of those generated by newsstand or subscription copies. While the comps of public place audiences may be somewhat diluted, these copies still have the potential to generate more readers in virtually any given target group than the paid copies that tend to be overvalued by advertisers. Put another way, well-read public place copies are likely to reach a larger number of potential buyers of an advertised product than other copies. But while these copies have the potential to generate a large number of readers, simply distributing them isn’t enough. The copies must go into outlets where they will come into contact with an audience that is not only valuable to advertisers but inclined to read the publication.

Numerous studies(1) have documented the ability of public place distribution to generate high-quality readers who are engaged with the publications they read in locations such as doctors’ offices and beauty salons, but advertisers remain suspicious of verified – and at times their suspicions are justified. While many publishers are taking aggressive measures to ensure that their public place copies are being used appropriately to build audience and generate trial, some continue to use verified to maintain excessively high ratebases and to compensate for insufficient consumer demand. Until recently there has been limited disclosure of public place copies, and publishers’ reluctance to own up to this important source of distribution has contributed to the perception that it is somehow tainted. At last month’s ABC board meeting, the final hiding place for public place copies was eliminated, resulting in full disclosure of this type of distribution.

Advertisers are justified in seeking proof of public place quality, but by lobbying for its elimination – or being unwilling to pay for this form of distribution – they are undermining the efficacy of their advertising. If I were an advertiser, I would be at least as concerned about publishers who don’t include public place distribution as a key element in the circulation mix as I would be about those who make extensive use of public place without articulating a clear and compelling strategy for its use. Thoughtful advertisers who want their advertising to have the greatest impact should have a single-minded focus on efficiently reaching the largest possible audience of qualified respondents to their advertising. Well-used public place makes it easier for advertisers to reach this goal.

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(1) Studies in this area conducted by the MPA, Condé Nast and McPheters & Company, Time Inc. and mediaedge, Vista, and WRSS are available on the MPA website.

McPheters & Company is a New York-based firm, founded in 1997, which specializes in serving the needs of the publishing and advertising communities regarding metrics relating to audience, distribution, and advertising effectiveness.