It has been hard for Foxtel’s 2.2 million subscribers to miss the newsXpress TV commercial running over the last week. Funded by newsXpress and supported with a strong social media campaign as well as in-store marketing, the TV campaign has been successful at driving net new traffic.
Basket data indicate valuable engagement beyond the basic buy 2 get 1 free pitch. Plenty are buying more of the promoted Beanie Boo product. Plenty are buying other products while in-store.
Landing new shoppers in-store is tough work. newsXpress is doing this at a national level for its 243 retail locations and doing it through a product that historically was a toy shop and national retailer product. The campaign is part of a long-term and integrated strategy that has recast the focus of newsXpress to new traffic areas while not disrespecting traditional newsagency shopper traffic.
To those who say the buy 2 get 1 free deal is nothing special – you’re entitled to your view. This is the second year running this promotion for a reason.
To those who may want to mock Beanie Boos, a country town newsagency with a population of 5,000 selling $23,000 in Boos in a year and achieving the best return on floorspace of all products in-store from Beanie Boos is one example of many success stories. In the city and country, Beanie Boo and associated exclusive products are an excellent new new traffic driver product.
To those who want to criticise newsXpress for any reason, that is your right. However, criticise with facts. The facts here are, this campaign is a terrific commercial and new traffic success.
To those who may say not all newsXpress members participated, yes, that is true. I think those who chose to not participate are dills.
To the other marketing groups who say I should not write about newsXpress here, remember, there is an open invitation for you to share your success stories here.
Note: I am a Director of newsXpress.
“a country town newsagency with a population of 5,000 selling $23,000 in Boos in a year”
Gee that almost sounds too good to be true.
But if you a person with so much integrity said it happened. I guess it happened.
Big Oil, welcome back. I never got the email from you to say who you are. If people knew they might understand your comments better.
Yes, I was thrilled to see the data for this business. Excellent results. It is sad you try and denigrate the success of others.
Hi Mark, I sent through the email last Monday. Check your spam file.
Sorry if my first post sounded a little facetious but using the figures you supplied that would mean that on average every man, woman and child in the town spent $4.60 on Beanie Boo’s. That figure is phenomenal and an excellent result.
Are you able to tell us the name of the store that achieved this?
No email, not even in spam folder.
Your numbers assume shoppers only come from the town.
The town does not matter as there are plenty of stores in different locations achieving similar results.
http://nypost.com/2015/02/22/how-the-beanie-baby-craze-was-concocted-then-crashed/
Good on you Big Oil, seeking to tear down a success story with an unrelated new article from 2015 while hiding behind a fake name.
While you play your puerile games others are focussed on building more valuable businesses.
Sorry Mark, I know the story is from two years ago but I didn’t think it would matter as the Beanie Boo craze is from 15 years ago.
The story is about the Beanie baby product, which is very different to Beanie Boos.
Big Oil, let me tell you that the beanie boo craze from 15 years ago is actually much bigger now than it was back then! I love hearing newsagents who are negative about this category as it means a bigger piece of the pie for me. My sales figures are much better than the ones stated above and I can imagine there are several stores like mine out there. For the record I am not a Newsxpress store and you do not need to be to drive excellent results in your store. You need to get rid of the old attitude and negativity which is on display here.
Hi Chris, what is your annual dollar turnover in Beanie Boo’s and are you too a rural newsagent?
Dill ….”a derogatory term used to describe irrational/dumb behavior and low intellectual capacity, …”
Nice one.
Mark, one does not feed trolls.
One does not brag or assert and then not back it up.
If you are going to make outrageous claims expect some scrutiny.
Oh goody Big Oil is back for a play…..I’ve missed Big Oil….I was worried Big Oil had floated off to some other off shore location to spill his vile…..welcome back old mate!
Allan, how are your Beanie Boo sales?
Are you one of the stores selling in excess of $23K of BB’s?
Rural town population 9000, guessing at average 10 sales a day minimum sales per year $365,000.
Big oil, seriously, why so bitter!
Oops $36,500 per year
My Beanie Boo sales are fine Big Oil…..probably my best 1 square meter of my store as far as ROI is concerned…..how’s your Beanie Boo sales going? By the way old mate you never did tell me why you were “very dark” on me…….
Allan, lets not derail this thread with our silly little spat.
This thread is about Beanie Boo’s. Do you know which store in the town with the population of 5,000 is turning over $23K in Boo’s?
I questioned the figure at first till I ran my own numbers. I’m in a country town, Pop 6300, 3 majors with cheaper Beanie Boos, sales average per week $450 ex. since February, so no Christmas sales in that. 2% is external sales by online. I knew they’d do well to start with but expected sales to decline after a few months from market saturation but sales are still trending up. It seems the main driver is continual release of new designs, especially exclusives or early release access which keeps people coming back.
The success comes from a layer of factors in store and tech based but it is best to not disclose details here.
Big Oil Unless you disclose your identity your comments here and obsession with the success of some others is a waste of time. #sad
Thanks Happy newsXpresser and Pat for your reasoned comments.
#winning
Oils ain’t oils, but Big Oil’s are fucking painful!
Big Oil, for someone hiding their own identity, you demand a lot of information about others. Both my stores do EXTREMELY well with Ty products but I have no compuntion to share figures with an undisclosed identity.
Commenting as a newsagency owner who does not stock Beanie Boos (we are not NewsXpress) and as a Grandmother of a 7 year old who has been collecting them for about 18 months – it doesn’t take long for one little girl to get a total of 15 regular and/or medium Beanie Boos lined up along her bedroom shelf! That’s a minimum of $150. The consumers in a town would not just be the collectors but the devoted Grandparents buying them for birthdays and Xmas. Not hard to see that these figures would be correct. I’m jealous! But I really do value Mark’s blog because it’s always great food for thought no matter what group you belong to.
There is one ONE group who has the tech support which provides stores with direct online sales of a number of products and thats newXpress all the others are running a distant second
Mark R, that’s one of the the most ridiculous things I have ever read on this blog.
Not only are your comments blatantly wrong they totally disrespect any other retailer who through their own initiative and capital have established, nurtured and grown successful business’s in their own right.
Many business owners don’t want someone to hold their hand and tell them (contract) or even to suggest how to run a business – and are incredibly well placed because of it. Sorry mate I am not running a distant second to you or anybody else, the reality is you don’t have the balls to run your own race. Given your tunnel vision and rose coloured lenses maybe the rest of us don’t meet the selection criteria to enter anyway.
Hamish your accusation of Mark about ‘balls’ is unhelpful and not based on knowledge. Mark’s comment was, as I read it, a group to group comparison. It is easy to do, to look at the customer-facing web strategy of the various newsagency groups, and compare.
This post is about a TVC by newsXpress, which has generated considerable net new traffic for participating businesses, for a high-margin category. Others sought to make it about the group itself, they sought to bring it down or at least distract from the focus of the post.
Newsagents have to make their own choices as to how they run their businesses. We have seen how they have panned out for some, and will see more as time goes on.