Putting aside a legacy of competition, the Register and ADVO, the largest direct-mail marketing company in the United States, struck up a partnership resulting in the initiation of a joint advertising program that reached nearly all of Orange County.
The move marked the first weekend partnership for ADVO, which mails coupons and ads to every household in Orange County and nationwide to over 85 million households annually. With the Register delivering newspapers with ads and coupons to 40 percent of the county's households every Sunday, it didn't take a scientist to do the math.
"We went from reaching 340,000 subscribers on Sunday to an increase of 980,000 with ADVO," said Register Vice President of Advertising Jim Ryan. "The partnership allows us to reach 98 percent of every household in Orange County."
"It was truly out-of-the-box thinking and it opened up a whole new customer base for us for advertising messages," Ryan added. "It is one of the most important things I've been involved with here."
The process of gearing up and training sales teams to sell a product that was formerly competition was a bit of a challenge for Product Development Manager Lori Dean. "We had to adopt a new way of thinking and retrain the sales staff. We are getting positive feedback and the advertisers are gradually increasing as they get more comfortable with the product."
"It's the first step of many partnerships for Freedom," Dean continued. "I think that's the direction the company needs to look."
Stories of Success Listing | Table of Contents | 2001 Annual Report | Freedom Communications, Inc.