Bauer Media makes data play for casual readers with launch of Reader Rewards app
Bauer Media is launching what it claims is an Australian first with a consumer loyalty app which will allow it to collect data on casual magazine buyers and send out marketing messages to drive them back into newsagents.
The Reader Rewards scheme is a free smartphone app requiring readers to register their name and email address, as well as some statistics such as their date of birth, and in return receive a point for buying any of Bauer’s 55 titles at participating newsagents, with the ninth magazine free for the customer and the newsagent redeeming the cost from the publisher.
Eugene Varricchio, Bauer Media’s director of operations and retail sales, said the app, set to be launched on June 2, has been launched with two key strategies. One is to drive purchasers back to the newsagencies, and the second is to gather data on consumers.
“The more we understand about consumer shopping behaviour, the more we can target offers to drive them into retail,” he told Mumbrella.
As well as hopefully increasing magazine sales in newsagents, Varricchio said it will help Bauer better understand who is buying their magazines, how they buy them and their engagement with the titles.
“This is just another data point as far as our overall insight strategy is concerned with our consumer,” he told Mumbrella.
However, he said the app will not carry direct advertising on it and has been designed to encourage the consumer to keep buying Bauer publications.
“It’s a fine balance between utilising this app for what it’s designed for and not overtargetting consumers and annoying them with too many marketing offers,” he said.
“From our perspective the marketing offers will be more about how we can drive them back into newsagents to buy more frequently either the products they are currently buying or similar products we believe they might want to buy, based on the insights from the data we collect.”
Varracchio said Bauer expects to sign 1,4oo newsagents onto the scheme within the first six months, adding he expects to reach at least 900 by launch.
Trade and consumer campaigns surrounding the launch include incentives for participating newsagents and readers who download the app to win $1,000 a week for ten weeks.
Matthew Stanton, CEO of Bauer Media said in a statement: “Bringing an app like this into the market opens up huge opportunities for the newsagency channel and the magazine category overall.”
Reader Rewards will be free to download and will be available for both iOS and Android Smartphones.
Last month Bauer Media’s head of mobile, Marcelo Silva, said the publisher would launch a range of free and paid-for smartphone apps this year.
Megan Reynolds
