Telegraph drops ‘Bestseller’ for promotion-led campaigns
The Daily Telegraph has confirmed that its brand advertising campaign, underpinned by the strapline “Read a bestseller”, is being put on the “back burner” as first mooted in Marketing Week (December 9, 2004).
A Telegraph insider says the newspaper will focus on promotions as it fights “tooth and claw” against its nearest rival The Times.
The source adds that the promotions will not be knee-jerk “add ons” but “come from the strengths of the newspaper”. These could include promotions with strong links to travel, sport and gardening.
The Telegraph cleared out a layer of senior management last month, making marketing director Mark Dixon and group sales director Chris White-Smith redundant.
The newspaper declined to comment on whether it is to change agency. Dixon appointed Universal McCann to handle the newspaper’s media buying and Naked Inside to handle planning in January last year. In December 2001, Dixon appointed Clemmow Hornby Inge to handle advertising .
The Telegraph Group was bought by Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay last October. Former EMAP Advertising managing director Dave King has been brought in as executive director while editorial director Kim Fletcher is overseeing marketing, until a new marketing director is appointed.
The newspaper has lined up half a million pounds’ worth of holiday and travel supplements for the first part of the year, including an eight-page A4 supplement with the Portuguese Tourist office focusing on the Azores, and a 16-page tabloid supplement funded by South African Tourism and Gold Medal Travel.
