Mail on Sunday preps giveaway to ward off Sunday Sun

The paper’s publisher Associated Newspapers has placed full-page ads in both its Daily Mail and Metro newspapers to promote a giveaway in this weekend’s forthcoming Mail on Sunday.

The Mail on Sunday is to include three free supplements this weekend: men’s magazine Live, the female-focused You and an extra 76-page fashion supplement entitled You Inspire.

Associated Newspapers will be hoping that by appealing to both men and women this weekend it will mitigate the fact that the Sunday Sun is likely to be more family friendly female-focused than its predecessor The News of the World. The Sunday Sun will also include women’s supplement Fabulous.

Northern & Shell’s Sunday Express will be giving away a gardening mat this weekend, while today’s Daily Mirror is promoting a Carling Cup special pull-out for this Sunday’s edition.

Media insiders have predicted that Associated Newspapers, Trinity Mirror and Northern & Shell, owner of the Sunday Express and Daily Star Sunday, will spend in excess of £2.8m in advertising over the next four weeks to ward off reader interest in the new News International title.

A series of cover price cuts, giveaways and above the line advertising are set to launch in the days leading up to this Sunday (26 February) by all of News International’s rival publishers.

Meanwhile, News International has already launched a multi-million pound marketing offensive to promote the Sunday Sun’s launch.

The first Sunday Sun TV ad launched during ITV1’s coverage The Brits on Tuesday (21 February), followed by an outdoor campaign with the strapline “In Britain The Sun comes out every day”. Further above the line activity is planned for later in the week.

Read Mark Ritson’s view on the launch of the Sunday Sunhere.