NATIONAL: Pandora has credited its controversial demand for editorial integration with publishers as a major reason for its success in the Australian market.
Pandora Australia marketing executive Jeff Burnes said the company's editorial intergration approach with media owners is one of the most important factors in its rapid rise. Pandora is Australia’s biggest jewellery brand after quickly grabbing 32 per cent of the retail jewellery market with $400 million-plus in sales last year.
The lion’s share of Burnes' $6-million media advertising budget has
been going to major magazine publishers, but there’s a catch. Part of
his magazine deals is a stipulation that Pandora gets plenty of
editorial coverage.
Burnes says without it, Pandora’s
advertising brand communications would be half as effective. “There’s
only so much we can say in our ads, our above-the-line campaign,” he
says. “So the relationship we have with media is multi-faceted. We do
need above the-line but we also need the integration with editorial.”
Every
October, Pandora and its media agency MediaCom puts out a brief to
magazine publishers and TV operators outlining its budgets for the next
year. They want to know what ad deals can be delivered along with the
crucial elements of editorial integration.
Editorial and
advertising teams then pitch their ideas. “Rates, added value,
[editorial] integration opportunities and positioning within the
magazine are the main criteria when we are planning a media strategy,”
Burnes says.
This year Pandora has slashed its magazine titles
by a third – from 30 down to 20. Although it has been ACP and Pacific
that have lured most of Pandora’s magazine budget, the company’s rising
ad budgets have attention from newspaper groups for their magazine
inserts.
News Limited is showing far more interest than Fairfax,
Burnes says, and he’s interested because of the national distribution
of single format magazine titles inside newspapers.
It’s a major
cultural shift for newspaper companies to talk editorial integration
but Burnes says News Limited has been doing a fine job.
“We’re
happy with the way things are going there. Rather than looking at it
from a one-dimensional relationship, News Limited is looking at a more
holistic link with advertising and editorial sponsorship opportunities.
“I’m not sure how much of a priority we are to Fairfax. The relationship just isn’t there,” he says.
Pandora’s
Australian strategy has been so successful, Burnes says the UK and US
are now replicating it and new markets such as China are doing likewise.
By
the end of the year he says the US$6-billion company will overtake
Tiffany to be the second ranked global jewellery player behind Cartier.
“The
UK is now totally aligned to Australia’s positioning in that upper end
of affordable luxury and by the end of the year, the US will be too,”
Burnes says.
“All our new markets are replicating the Australian
model.” And to ensure the Australian way is Pandora’s global way,
Burnes sits on the international content committee to make sure the
brand is “aligned around the world”.
This story first appeared in Ragtrader sister title www.adnews.com.au