Last week I had the honor of being on a panel during the first of 3 MCMA/AAMP sponsored Candid Conversations, about audience development.

The openness and innovation from the panel and attendees was impressive—clearly many marketers have been cooped up and working alone for too long.  They wanted to share innovations, successes and what are the new areas of focus during this turbulent year.

Since COVID started, here are some marketing wins we discussed:

*Web traffic for some brands has increased by 300-400%.

*Consumer magazines that continue to use direct mail have seen improved response rates, some up to 150%.

*Newspapers have seen increased e-delivery activations.

*Brands are increasing their social media presence, which has resulted in better response rates.

*Some brands have removed free magazine downloads from websites.  Content metering has helped increase paid subscriptions and/or a shift to a membership model from a subscription model.

*Brands are implementing magazine subscription co-registration forms with online events.

*More open dialogue between sales and audience, as RFP advertiser requests come in. This in turn has inspired some to do a review and update the data they are collecting from subscribers.

A humble thanks to all those who contributed to the conversations—many minds, many needs, many challenges, similar goals—to continue to engage people with our brands and content.

Here is my prediction for what will continue to be hot topics for the near future, for audience development professionals: data collection, testing, membership paid models and increased social media engagement.

The journey continues. Cindy