Dubai: At a time when people around the world are turning to the internet for news and information, Gulf News’ recently concluded three-month print subscription campaign has been labelled a “huge, unprecedented success”.
“Nearly 20 per cent of the total orders received in this campaign came from new subscribers,” says Sabyasachi Gupta, Business Manager of Gulf News Distribution. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank our promotion partners as well as our valued subscribers for contributing to this grand success.”
When spending Dh300 for all 365 issues of the newspaper through 2018, subscribers were also given Dh100 worth of vouchers for Lulu Group supermarkets and hypermarkets as well as Dh100 of vouchers at Aster pharmacies.
“We were really excited from day one of this campaign as both Gulf News and Lulu enjoy tremendous brand equity among the large cosmopolitan population of UAE,” says V. Nandakumar, Chief Communications Officer at Lulu Group.
“Though we were sure about the success of this campaign, the final numbers have surpassed our expectations.
“The beauty of this campaign was that the subscriber got back tangible and real value rather than perceived value benefits. We hope to join hands in future also to bring more value to the shoppers of Lulu and readers of Gulf News.”
Rajeev Khanna, Commercial Director at Gulf News, says, “We value both Lulu and Aster as longstanding business partners of Gulf News and they have been advertising in Gulf News since their launch in the UAE.”
Lulu Group opened its first supermarket in 1992, while Aster has been operating in the UAE since 1987.
“Clearly the RoI they receive from Gulf News is massive and being a partner in our subscriber campaign only brings them further value and brand extension,” adds Khanna.
Dr Azad Moopen, Chairman of Aster DM Healthcare, says, “It has been our proud privilege to partner with Gulf News, the most widely read English newspaper in the region, in a joint campaign to increase its reach and customer base. We are very happy to see the fantastic response to the campaign, which has overshot its target three times over.
“This shows the strength of the brands and prove that 1 plus 1 is not always 2 — it could be 3 or even much more. We would like to extend our hearty congratulations and thanks to Gulf News for making us partners in the campaign.”
Gupta credits the campaign’s success to print and online advertising in Gulf News, as well as a delivery force of more than 500 newsboys, who work through the night to ensure subscribers can wake up to their copy of the UAE’s most-read paper.
“The age of our core readers varies between 30 and 45 and they are primarily Asian,” he added. According to the UK-based National Readership Survey, Gulf News reaches 41 per cent of the UAE’s non-Arab residents.
Khanna said: “Reader trust is a key element and we have been fortunate to have several thousands of our readers who have been subscribing to Gulf News for decades. Promotional and marketing activities have been a part of the offerings for several years in the world of publishing not only in the UAE but also in a variety of developing and developed markets.
“The reward offerings are actually more like acknowledgement of gratitude to our core readers for their faith in our brand and content. At times, promotional activities may be undertaken to invoke interest in potential new audiences — everyone likes a good offer.”
One cornerstone of building reader trust is timeliness. As you read this, a team of editors, journalists and designers are preparing tomorrow’s issue of Gulf News to send to press.
Printing is concluded by 2am, after which it takes about three-and-a-half hours for the paper to reach your doorstep. “The deadline for delivery to a subscriber is before 6am, but in most cases you’ll have your paper by 5.30am,” adds Gupta.
Khanna acknowledges that the ways in which readers consume news are changing, but says content matters. “Growing digital consumption of news is a reality all across the globe; however, the magnitude and scope of the digital audience varies from continent to continent.
“For instance, in the Americas and Europe digital news consumption is far more penetrative compared to some pockets of Asia and the Arab world. To a certain degree, in our geographical belt, we find that print has held its own and there is a large segment of die-hard print consumers who have not entirely moved to digital — if anything they indulge in a bit of both.
“Our investments over the years in the print edition has resulted in one of the finest designed, award-winning newspapers east of London.
“Having said that, we are extremely active digitally as Gulfnews.com and are ranked the number-one English news website in the region. Going forward, the combination of digital plus print for our audience is the path we are seeking actively. We are already getting recognised in certain quarters as an innovative media company that provides a high-quality vibrant news website along with state-of-the-art printing, publishing and distribution facilities.”
Khanna adds that print newspapers demonstrating transparency — such as through a public declaration of independent audited circulation figures — will survive.
“Right now there is a bunch of publishers claiming high circulation but this is far from the truth and, sadly, advertisers lose significant advertising spend using such media. This will all change in the very near future as the UAE drives towards embracing universally accepted benchmarks of truth and transparency in all facets of conducting business.
“Eventually, the need for declaring honest audited figures will be recognised by both the advertisers and agencies. Truth shall prevail.”
