Ad Ideas On Tap Session


Revenue Ideas On Tap (RIOT)
MNA Annual Convention
Advertising Idea Exchange 2022

  1. Hey Mom & Dad Then & Now – Graduation – Classified Then and Now – Brought back last year. $2000 in revenue $50 per spot. Black and white, no color. – Patty Steele – Press Publications – marketing@presspubs.com Hey Mom & Dad
  1. Great Meat Giveaway page. Benton county news 1500 publication, local meat processor – Grand Champion Meats – Find the brat in the ad and enter to win. Winner receives $95 worth of retail in store – ads are $95 each time. Color full page. Ads are 2×4 in color. Revenue gains $950 – 2x/mo. – Bob Leukam – Star Publications – bob.l@star-pub.com Great Meat Giveaway
  1. Acrostic Puzzle – – Each week I run a special “acrostic” puzzle on page 3 of the paper. People who send in the completed puzzle are entered into a drawing for $10 gift certificate. One drawing each week. The gift certificate can be cashed at participating advertisers and I pay the advertisers back. Not all readers participate, but the ones who do love it. Revenue Gained: interested from advertisers and subscribers; impossible to measure – Lee Zion – Layfette/Nicollet Ledger – ledger@paririepublishingmn.com Acrostic Puzzle
  1. World Snow Sculpting Championship Event Guide – Print job for new international even hosted by Stillwater. Got the bid when unexpected. Partnered with Stillwater Chamber at 10% of the ad sales. Chamber paid for printing and layout designs. We sold the ads. Revenue Gain: $11,000 after the 10% to the Chamber. – Randy Roberts – Press Publications Stillwater – lowdown@presspubs.com World Snow Sculpting Championship
  1. Community Bucks – – Offer $5 Community Bucks gift certificate to each new subscriber – 150-180 new subscriber. Couple months ran. Spring time. – Billie Jo Rassat – Clara City Herald – ccherald@hcinet.net
  1. Ice out contest – White Bear Lake – Ran a house ad asking readers to make a guess – Advertisers ran on the page with the form on it. Ran it for 3 weeks – $425 – 2×3 3 weeks – $400 and $25 gift card. Online component at presspubs.com 150 submissions. $3,000-$4,000 revenue – Patty Steele – Press Publications – marketing@presspubs.com Ice Out Contest
  1. Century Farms – 8 counties – listed all the century farms and did a story on one farm per farm – Revenue Gained: $44,000 – available to see on website – Jamie Ostendorf– Star Publications – jamie@star-pub.com
  1. Promo Pages – We have pages that people would like to sponsor for the year such as EMT, Police, Fire week, Farm Safety Week, Festival schedule, 4H Week, Graduation. Sell for a year commitment. – Jenny Krueger – Independent News Herald – ads@innnews.com
  1. Subscription Based Advertising – Year long, subscription based advertising. Keeps monthly costs the same for 12 months making budgeting easy. Ad program is customized to the business. 14 different preset ads throughout the year; 5 tabloids -fall/winter/spring sports preview, graduation, Christmas; 7 community minded pages; Valentines Day wrap and Thanksgiving Wrap. Smallest size $300/month. It also eliminates the need to “sell” to the people all year. – Bruce Karnick, Hasting Journal – bruce@hastingjournal.news
  1. School Sponsorship – School Sponsorship 25 businesses $175 for year. 4 honor roll pages in color – sports season wrap up, 8 page graduation tab 1×2.5 color ad, Revenue Gain: $4400/year If team goes to state, contact those businesses for extra sponsorship. – Rachel Miller, Henderson Independent –hendersonmnnews@gmail.com
  1. Customer Appreciation Sale – First Friday of January – Look for slowest time of year – ads can run the Last 3 weeks of January and all of February. 1 day sale 9am – 3pm . Contact businesses that day for 1/2 or full page ads for 1/2 price. Has to be sold that day. Can buy up to 7 of them. Big ad to run, able to design a better ad. Valentine’s Day, Tax People, Businesses started planning their sales around the newspapers sales. Done for 3 years. Grown 26% second year, 26% the third year and 17% just this January. Bonus to sales rep – $25 for new advertiser, $20 for 1/2 page, $30 for full page. Run 1/2 page ads 2 weeks prior to promotion. Presale with Flyers – work on it between Christmas and New Years. Can sign commitment form before that day but must be signed by 3 pm that day. Get sales staff together at 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm. Drawing for gift bags for sales staff. A lot of media companies do this. – Matt McMillan – Press Publications – matt@presspubs.com
  1. Multi-Sweeps – Second Street Online Contest – Multi Sweeps Online contests. 10 sponsors to a contest instead of larger ones. Set up 6 for the year in 2022, sold in January. $125/contest for all 6 or $180 if pick or choosing certain contests. Then the sales reps can sell it at once and focus on other stuff during the year. Revenue Gain: $6,750 each paper. – Crystal Miller – Albert Lea Tribune/Austin Daily Herald – crystal.miller@albertleatribune.com 
    Mulit-Sponsored Sweeps-1
  1. School Photo Pages & Calendar – We go to the school to take photos for different events, homecoming, activities, sports, plays, concerts, etc and run the page twice a month as a keepsake. The photos are also used for a calendar. Revenue Gain $5,040 on photo page, $3,000 on calendar. – Jenny Kruger – Independent News Herald – ads@innnews.com
  1. Theme Pages – Repeating monthly theme pages: puzzle page, healthy living, senior living, pets page (Fur Pets Sake), Each page has either a 1- 1/2 page ad, 2-1/4 page ads or 4 – 1/8 page, news story above it. Run the same week each month. Put together editorial calendar. Choose 3 themes for each paper. Aging Gracefully, Education page, Business page, Once it is sold out, you don’t sell more. Ad rep that sells – $100. Editor – $100, Newspaper – Pizza Party every time a theme page is launched. Can make it exclusive as well so you don’t have competing businesses. $28,000 in revenue so far – Matt McMillan, Press Publications – matt@presspubs.com Theme page Aging Gracefully Press Pubs rates
  1. Support Local Journalism! Subscription drive – Sold 2 year subscriptions for $75 and the subscriber got their choice of a t-shirt or mug with Hastings on it. Sold hundreds of more subscriptions. – Bruce Karnick, Hasting Journal – bruce@hastingsjournal.news
  1. All About Pets – July – Double page spread in paper, pertaining articles to pets, advertisers that cater to pets, people can submit photos (put a limit on the first X photos submitted will be printed). At one time did a Pet Look Alike Contest with business owners and their pets, have to match the pet to the business owners. – Patty Steele – Press Publications – marketing@presspubs.com
  1. Hi! I’m a billboard. Blank Build Board house ad ran from time to time. On the billboard I have ran, “Hi, I’m a billboard and I have a dirty little secret. My owner won’t tell you this, but if you are spending money on billboards like me, you’re wasting your money. Billboards are very good at catching the eye of people driving by at 65 mph on their way to somewhere else. YOU SHOULD HAVE ADVERTISED IN THE LEDGER. People love and support the paper and they love and support the businesses that support the paper. So take it from me, a billboard, and it will be the first time anybody ever did”. Newspapers deliver. Talk about what your paper does. – Lee Zion – Layfette/Nicollet Ledger – ledger@paririepublishingmn.com
  1. Referrals – Increasing Business? – Ask your best customers who they think you can help. Ask them if they’d give that business a call. Then when you cold call, they are expecting you. Ask for referrals. Bob Leukam – Star Publications – bob.l@star-pub.com
  1. Revamped Community Guide – We revamped our community guide and our local visitors guide. However, with the community guide, we gave the city 7 pages to use for what they wanted in the community guide. Some were half pages and some were full pages, so it worked with our layout. Much the the copy the city wanted in the book was stuff we would have included anyway. In exchange for their 7 pages of the 32 page book, they paid for the printing. Therefore, resulting in a much better profit for us. – Tara Brandl, Tracy Area Headlight Herald, tara@headlightherald.com
  1. Heroes in COVID– A double truck sponsored by the school showcasing the students in distance learning. We asked parents to submit photos of the their distant learners – Billie Jo Rassat – Clara City Herald – ccherald@hcinet.net

 

Revenue Ideas On Tap (RIOT)
MNA Annual Convention
Advertising Idea Exchange 2020

 

  1. Halloween Hunt – $50 photo of 2 kids hidden in costume in their store. Readers guess where they are in the local business. First, second, third got gift certificates. Super easy. Revenue – $300. Lakes Area Review, New London – Taylor Voss, sales@nlslakesareareview.com

 

  1. Ice out contest – entry blank on page and have a number of businesses sponsoring – $250 for ad plus $25 gift certificate – 3 times prior and 4th time with winner. Gift certificate went to winner. Total Revenue – $3500. Grand Prize winner  – Kayak, donated by fleet farm.  Runners up got a gift certificate. One winner for each business. Random draw from correct date. Echo Press – Randy Jansen, rjansen@echopress.com

 

  1. Boomerang Bucks – 1/2 trade, 1/2 cash to all restaurants. Did over July, not a busy month. $15,000 in cash, $15,000 in gift cards. Gift cards sold to subscribers for discount to renewal or new subscribers. Patty Steele, marketing@presspubs.com

 

  1. Valentine’s Pet Month – Advertisers submitted photos of themselves and their pets. Readers did their best to match them up. $69 for ad plus prize. Also donated part of the proceeds to the Humane Society. Wadena Pioneer Journal – Britanie Rentz, brentz@wadenapj.com

 

  1. Human trafficking double truck. Tips, what is trafficking, things to watch for, different ways it occurs. $4300 in revenue. Telemarketing project. West Central Tribune – Christie Steffel, csteffel@wctrib.com

 

  1. Best of the Best – Changes – June – July, nomination stage, July – August, voting stage. 11,000 unique voters, $25,000 in revenue. 600 people attended event this year. 12 food vendors, 3 live bands. Community event. Mailed invitation and 1 guest and then community members came. Event went from 4-8 pm. $10 door entry. Used second street promotion for it. Duluth News Tribune – Megan Keller, mkeller@duluthnews.com

 

  1. Rockin Robin – Christmas promotion that has built each year. Pictures around area businesses wearing silly hat spreading holiday cheer. People have to match pictures to businesses. $3096. Detroit Lakes – Robin Stalley, rstalley@dlnewspapers.com

 

  1. Paul’s Adventures – Promote local businesses with pictures in locations & business logos. 14 sponsors – sold in a day and a half $125 per spot. Photo inside the business $1750 in revenue. Echo Press – Paul Uhde, puhde@echopress.com

 

  1. In remembrance – Alphabetically Name, birth date and death date, of all obits from past year. Sig ads – $1,000. ran in January. DL Newspapers – Liz Molacek, emolacek@dlnewspapers.com

 

  1. – Musicians of the Month – Sponsored by local music store, $200 /month. The Lowdown, Randy Roberts

 

  1. Veteran’s Day – Pull out section Full color section, 10 pages, no editorial 84 ads and 166 photos of local veterans, asked readers to submit photos as well as contacted senior living facilities to get residents to submit. Started asking for photos in July – $10,265 in revenue. Front and back banner, $400 each. Park Rapids Enterprise – Karen Holtan, kholtan@parkrapidsenterprise.com

 

  1. ANC Digital Blitz Packages – $60,000 – Partnered with Advantage Consumer Consultants. 4 legged sales calls – mobile, webpage, email, and print in various bundles. Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Tribune, Grand Rapids – Alison Stanaway, astanaway@mesabidailynews.net

 

  1. Restaurant Menu to Go Menu – Sell ads to any type of business to go into the “to go” menu magazine. Work with restaurant to get info that pertains to their restaurant. Pelican Rapids Press – Jeff & Julie Meyer, julieprpress@loretel.net

 

  1. Sweet Deals/Cutest Couple – Valentine’s Day with twist – 4 page section – front and back advertisers. Couples inside with photos. 25 cents a vote. $2500 in votes collect for non-profit. Profit amount is $3054. Echo Press – Jennifer Vraa, jvraa@echopress.com

 

  1. Knot Notes – Subscribers got newspaper currency with subscription. Could be used at 25 different businesses. Businesses redeemed them by using them towards advertising in the paper. Pine Knot News – Ivan Hohnstadt, ads@pineknotnews.com

 

  1. RiverTownPicks.com – Second Street platform. Football contest runs 22 weeks. $690 per team – 32 teams – 3 presenting sponsors, 4840 in prizes as credit to advertisers. Rivertown Multi-Media – Eric Olson, eolson@rivertowns.net

 

  1. – Realtor Open House weekend – Weekend promotion for realtors to run open houses. April open house weekend. August in conjunction with another event. $50 per spot. $3200/time. Doesn’t have to be realtors, anything home related. Echo Press – Randy Jansen, rjansen@schopress.com

 

  1. Growler Giveaway – Giveaway promotion with partner to gather email newsletter or social subscriber. Building relationships and expanding demographic reach. Seasonal theme guides featuring related content & advertisers. Adds to monthly revenue base. Growler Magazine – Tim Olson, tolson@grayduckmedia.com

 

  1. Welcome to Tracy Guide – 40 page full color glossy book set up like to you do for a visitor’s guide, but geared towards recruiting new business and for families that are moving to town. Focus on schools, tax breaks, services in the community, etc. As well as numbers people need when they need to move when they get to town – setting up garbage service, internet providers, utilities. $9700. Tracy Area Headlight Herald – Tara Brandl, tara@headlightherald.com

 

  1. Rooted in local agriculture – glossy magazine. Spring and fall. Local agriculture information – stories. Local editorial stories. $22,000 fall – $30,000 spring. West Central Tribune – Christie Steffel, csteffel@wctrib.com

 

  1. County Resource Residential Guide – Annual Magazine County information, phone, information, churches, nonprofit information, seniors, medical and school Print and online, county services. $37,000 in revenue. Sold by one in house rep. Brainerd Dispatch – Pete Mohs, pete.mohs@brainerddispatch.com

 

  1. Progress report for Douglas County – Each business gets a small ad – 2×1 and 125 word news brief. Editorial writes up larger business stories. $57 for each business. $5758 in revenue. Echo Press – Paul Uhde, puhde@echopress.com

 

  1. Customer Appreciation Sale – 1/2 and full page sale – discount in slow months. Customers have to call in to get them. Create prizes for your sales rep to top sales rep. Press Publication – Tina McMillan

 

  1. Breast Cancer Awareness Tab – Asked women to submit photo and story. Headshots on front. Supported by businesses – married into women today magazine. Partnered with Maurice’s corporation. Photo shoot that women got to keep. $4650 in revenue. Duluth News Tribune -Megan Keller, mkeller@duluthnews.com

 

  1. Santa Days at the Echo Press – Invite community to come have their photo taken with Santa for a donation of food item. Free photo and on Facebook page. Run in holiday greeting section. Done on Thursday night. First 100 kids get a free pizza. $11,900 in holiday greeting section plus the food shelf donations. Echo Press – Randy Jansen, rjansen@echopress.com

 

  1. Design an ad – Publisher or ad manager goes to school and taught elementary age kids about ad design. Kids design ad, Sales rep designs an ad. Isanti – Chisago County Star – Jennifer Kotila, starclass@countystar.com

 

  1. Pie for subscription – Free pie with subscription – $5.99 value on pie. Got large response. Isanti – Chisago County Star – Jennifer Kotila, starclass@countystar.com

 


Revenue Ideas On Tap (RIOT)
MNA Annual Convention
Advertising Idea Exchange 2019

 

  1. Jody Hanson, Echo Press Puzzle fun and games book. Started as a sudoku book.  Found through Metro.  Bought the templated book.  Create word finds for the advertiser.  $5100, 6500 copies.  Color, front back, inside front, inside back, back.  80 lb white jhanson@echopress.com

 

  1. Steve Gall, APG – White SheetsIdea from Daily Clips, give them to sales reps to give to their customer. So the sales reps is an expert and they are equipped with the information.  Forces rep to have contact with account.  Copy and paste into word, personalize, send.  Steve.gall@ecm-inc.com

 

  1. Jim Brogren Detroit Lakes Newspapers – Not so Jolly St. Nicks big Christmas adventure. Match a photo with a logo. Chance to win $100 in chamber bucks.  18 ads this year. $109/ad.  First year had 14 ads.  jbrogen@dlnewspapers.com

 

  1. Becky Wedde – Wadena – Jingle Bell Becky – 17 ads sold before noon in first day. Photos of Becky in different places in the businesses. 17 ads, $109/ad. $1753. Winner gets $100 in chamber bucks. bwedde@wadenapj.com

 

  1. Britanie Rentz – Wadena PJ, Homecoming Edition – Homecoming candidates, schedule of events and photos submitted by WDC. 3 ad sizes sold, Great Community price. Brings in about $2300. 4 page section in paper. brentz@wdenapj.com

 

  1. Lee Zion – Lafayette Nicollet Ledger – Where the Face of Lafayette….., Where the face of Nicollet. We’re More than just a pretty face… Took pictures of people in town, created house ads for subscriptions and advertisers. ledger@prairiepublishingmn.com

 

  1. Lee Zion – Lafayette Nicollet Ledger – Billboard advertising. Took a picture of a blank billboard and created an advertisement that from the view of the billboard explaining why billboards are not effect and they should be in the paper. ledger@prairiepublishingmn.com

 

  1. Lee Zion – Lafayette Nicollete Ledger – Crossword puzzle that creates a phrase of quote. Bring it in or mail it in and 1 person per week wins $10 towards a business that advertises. Done it for 40 weeks so far. ledger@prairiepublishingmn.com

 

  1. Megan – Duluth Media Group – 13 week community weight loss challenge. Registration fee – half of it goes to the food shelter. Businesses purchase sponsorships.  61% ROI. Platinum sponsoship $5000, down to $1000 for bronze.  Revenue was just shy of $20,000. mwedel@duluthnews.com

 

  1. Nikki Lyter – Brainerd – Patnership with the local Chambers. Partner for the visitor’s guide. Layout, ads, printing, distribution.  After expenses we do a 50/50 split of revenue. Nikki.lyter@brainerddispatch.com

 

  1. Nick Plain, Maple Lake Messenger – Old ways, New Revenues. Started Instagram for Maple Lake Messenger. School took over posting instagram stuff.  3 people total.  If a bar or restaurant advertises in the paper, they get a feature on their instagram page.  Which connects to facebook and twitter. Connected with School, Chamber, and etc.  $100-$500 or more from new advertisers/week. nick@maplelakemessenger.com

 

  1. Robin – Detroit Lakes Newspapers – Good News Monthly – Recap the news at the end of the month, positive news items. Reader submitted photos, lighter side from the publisher. Sponsors around the side.  $1200/month.  On Facebook.  And online.  $149/ad – 2×2 or 1×4. Inserted into the paper once a month, on line every week. rstalley@dlnewspapers.com

 

  1. Brainerd Dispatch – Minnesota Home Magazine, soft luxerious cover. All photos are submitted by builders that are advertising in it. Goes out on a Sunday, goes out on racks, all year log.  Distributed copies at Lakes and Homes show.  Direct mail to people that have primary address in metro but has lake shore property.  Revenue $57,000 last year.  Increased every year.  Print 50,000 Cover s printed at Forum.  Expenses are $30,000.  Stories are written by local writers. lindaHurst@brainerddispatch.com

 

  1. Randy Jansen, Echo Press – Discover Lakes Area Map – Done every Summer in conjunction with the douglas county and vacationer. Broke into squares, you purchase number of squares. Map of lakes Ads are numbered and located on map.  Inserted into Guide to Douglas County.  Booger glued into Vacationer that is 4 times.  Billed April – August.  Revenue $10,550.  rjansen@echopress.com

 

  1. Liz Melacek – Detroit Lakes – Newspapers Packages for benefits. Created Packages – print ads, Facebook post, etc, all incorporated into one easy thing to sell to those that may not understand print ads. emolacek@dlnewspapers.com

 

  1. Scoop the monkey – Ordered a $50 monkey costume from Amazon. Premiered at parade, ran Facebook contest to name, Scoop the Monkey. Used in parades, at Super Hero event.  Going to have a coloring book this year.  tbrandl@marshallindependent.com

 

  1. Jordan Almen – Kerkhoven Banner, Create a Local Celebrity – We turned our golden retriever, Sophie, into a local celebrity by making her the focus of our ad campaign for Sophie’s Ice Cream Shop. We took photos of her ordering, eating ice cream, greeting customers. Everyone in our town knows Sophie jordan.e.almen@gmail.com

 

  1. Izzy Rush – Echo Press – Fairbook. Editorial Staff interviews board members, stories of readers that have been at the fair every year – $11,331. Ad sponsors get free passes up to 4 depending on their package. Ad runs in the souvinor edition.  irusch@echopress.com

 

  1. Izzy Rusch- Echo Press – 101 Fun Things to do in the Lakes Area – games, Bugs, etc. Restaurant Guide (which is sold into 3 different things) $18,575 irusch@echopress.com

 

  1. Patti – White Bear Press – Wine Page – $6,000 Ads surrounding map of wineries and monthly events. $1000/month for 6 months. wbpressad@presspubs.com

 

  1. Ted Almen – Kerkhoven Banner – School Calendar – Use photos of students throughout the year. Ads on bottom of each month. 1/month. $200 each.   Sold in 45 minutes. Inserted into the paper.  September to August  Extras to advertisers.  Each month it is ran in the paper, with any updates. kbanner@tds.net

 

  1. Megan Warner – Spring Grove Herald – Music Student of the Week. 2X5 ad each week featuring local high school music student. Teacher sends in headshot and Q&A from student. Local business sponsor as many weeks as they like.  We charge regular display ad rates.  $100/week – been running for over 1 year and going strong.  mwarner@bluffcountrynews.com

 

  1. Carmen Meyer – APG – Filler ads, sell ready made ads based on idea that you have space in your paper to fill it with that advertisers generic ad. Carmen.meyer@mcrecord.com

 

  1. Randy Jansen – Echo Press – I Do Bridal Guide – Bridal guide winter and summer issue. Brides are married at different times. Sold as a two time buy, less per ad.  Sold the cover, $850 – get the front cover photo, filler inside photos, 1/4 page.  Sold to Photoraphy – Jan – $11,717. 10,000 copies rjansen@echopress.com

 

  1. Jill wasson – Brainerd Dispatch – Resource guide. Sold by inside rep. Layed out nicely, $20,850. jill.wasson@brainerddispatch.com

 

  1. Steve Gall – APG – Well rounded Rep bingo. Incentive for each card filled out completely.  4 month period.  Steve.gall@ecm-inc.com

 

  1. Michelle – Duluth Media – Produce videos for Duluth.com Previously a content driven site, not monetized. Remdeled about a year ago.  Sold business listings and videos under EAT. SLEEP. SHOP tabs.  Made $23,000 in first year. Grew email list by 10,000. gained emails by doing contests. mtruax@duluth.com

 

  1. John Christenson – The Stevens County Times, Santa Paws, Santa pictures – but with dogs, for use in Christmas section for community engagement. Also get to pet a bunch of dogs. jchristenson@stevenscountytimes.com

 

  1. Steve Jameson – Mankato Free Press – Deal Cards – Get restaurants and business that won’t spend money on advertising to committ to being on a “deal Card” for example: get 6-10 pizzas places to committ to a large 3 topping pizza, put them on a punch card. Restaurants get thousnds of dollars in free promo and upsell opportunites, sell cares for $30-$50 each. Do pizza cards, burger cards, golf cards. $6000-$20000 depending on cards.  sjameson@mankatofreepress.com

 

  1. Taylor McClearen – Lakes Area Review – Map – Local Small papers like the Lakes Area Review could benefit if they took over printing the local town map. Businesses could advertise in squares around the border on the map, money for both ends this would be a fun way to connect the community or welcome people visiting. sales@nlslakesareareview.com