Star-News – Adinfinitum Case Study

The Implementation Process
To begin their launch of Adinfinitum, Star-News contacted a handful of retail advertisers to sign-up for electronic tearsheets through Adinfinitum. Coined the name 'Early Adopters', these advertisers are given the opportunity to use electronic tearsheets and invoices prior to the official product launch. Many of the early adopters were Majors/National accounts and most of them actually had more experience with E-tears than Star-News, themselves, so their feedback was greatly appreciated.

To initiate e-tears into the local market, the Advertising Department created a list of local retail accounts who received paper tearsheets. This list was distributed to the sales reps to start communicating with their customers about the upcoming change from paper to electronic. The reps were directed to supply a certain number of email addresses per month.

Throughout this transitional process, Star-News enclosed promotional material with each advertiser's monthly invoices and tearsheets. As of September 30, 2006, they instructed their clients that paper tearsheets would no longer be sent with their monthly statements.

Overcoming Challenges
The IT department is working on making the classified ads available through Adinfinitum. Once this is accomplished, they will begin to charge their clients for their paper tearsheet requests.

Exciting Opportunities
"We know that customers are using the invoicing, not necessarily to pay, but to compare online if their ads are linked to the invoice. I think a few may just wait to check them at month end. The ad # links on the invoice are great. It's so simple for the customer to view the invoice, click the link, and print the ad," says Lori Cummings, who has played an integral role in the implementation process and advertiser acceptance. "I know that the mailing time has been reduced. I wish we had measured the time and postage cost before the switch so that we did have hard data"

For more information, contact Denise Oates, doates@presteligence.com

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