How to Work Out Mutually Beneficial Insert Media Partnerships
August 26, 2009 By Joe Boland, Assistant Editor, Target MarketingSuccessful Partnerships
Despite the downfalls, insert media partnerships can be very successful. Take, for instance, Boardroom’s partnership with American Airlines. Several years ago, Boardroom targeted American Airlines frequent fliers in their frequent flier statements with their traditional insert for its newsletter Bottom Line: Personal. As added incentive, Boardroom gave people frequent flier miles when they paid for a subscription to the newsletter.
It was a beneficial joint venture for both Boardroom and American Airlines because the publisher gained subscribers and the airline was paid by Boardroom for the miles.
Catalogs also offer great opportunities for inserts. One example Feldstein shares is when Boardroom arranged with a certain cataloger to put a line of text at the bottom of the order form offering three free issues of Bottom Line: Personal, with the qualifier that Boardroom would invoice for the entire year, which of course the customer could cancel at any time. It tied in seamlessly in the order process, making it a higher probability that customers would accept the free issues offer. In return, Boardroom paid the cataloger for each customer that accepted the trial subscription.
Feldstein also suggests creating a catolog blow-in offer and offering catalog shoppers a gift certificate to that particular catalog if they buy your product promoted in the insert. That way, the buyer has an incentive to accept your offer and the cataloger gains more orders.
The opportunities insert media partnerships provide are plentiful if done right. But you have to be willing to put in the work to get the reward. “I think a lot of marketers tend to shy away from this kind of stuff because it does take a little bit more work, and it also is somewhat out of the box—meaning that you have to put together new creative and you have to customize the offer for a particular partner. That often takes a little more time and a little bit more effort. I do find some folks shy away from that because they don’t want to get involved with potential headaches,” says Feldstein. “But if it pays out, it can be good [for everyone involved].”
Page 1 | 2




Cracking the QR Code
The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising