With automotive ad sales waning, particularly in the print sector, Postmedia has created a six-person sales team exclusively dedicated to the key advertising category.
Postmedia’s chief commercial officer Andrew MacLeod told Marketing that the standalone team will enable Postmedia to “hyper-focus” on the automotive sector, which he said is crucial to the entire newspaper industry.
“Given the importance of automotive and the size of the sector, and how fluid our landscape is right now in terms of the whole ecosystem and clients looking for fresh new approaches, auto was a good place to inject some fresh vision and energy,” said MacLeod.
Canadian automotive advertisers spent $996 million across all ad segments in 2013, according to Statista, putting it second behind retail ($1.23 billion) and well ahead of food ($584 million). Local auto dealers spent an additional $415 million on advertising.
However, recent years have seen automakers move aggressively towards digital at the expense of traditional media such as print and television. According to an April report from Casale Media, automotive led the Canadian programmatic buying space last year, accounting for more than a quarter (27.4%) of overall spend in the fourth quarter. The report showed six of the top 10 spenders were automakers, with GM and Toyota leading the way.
Postmedia’s print advertising revenues fell 21.1% for the three months ended Aug. 31, to $74.1 million from $93.9 million in the year-earlier period. While the company does not provide individual category breakouts, management attributed approximately half of the decline to decreases in the automotive and technology segments.
While stressing none of Postmedia’s rivals are immune to the revenue challenges it faces, MacLeod said it’s important to try and repatriate some of that lost revenue.
“Our goal is to find new, innovative ways to deliver value to our customers,” he said. “We don’t profess to have the riddle solved in terms of how we can deliver that Holy Grail for the automotive sector or advertisers in general, but we are very focused on beginning that journey.”
MacLeod would not comment specifically on revenue objectives or growth targets for the sales unit.
“I’m looking at this more through the lens of how we do ensure we’re listening to customers, developing products and solutions that adhere to their requirements, and bringing them to market and executing in a manner that meets their needs,” he said. “Candidly, of course we want to defend and grow our revenue streams, but I’m not trying to put the cart before the horse.
The Toronto-based media company began assembling the sales team in late summer, said MacLeod. Vice-president of sales Maria Girimonte McDonald is leading the team, which includes three new hires: Director, national automotive William Cormier, previously of TC Media; Yasmine Da Silva, national account executive, previously with Quebecor Media; and Jason Randall, national account executive, previously with Canoe/Quebecor Media.
Other team members include Angela Steurnagel, an automotive expert and media strategist, and Neil Cartagenise, a national account executive with more than 20 years at Postmedia and the Financial Post.
The sales structure will adopt existing go-to-market strategies, said MacLeod. “There is no massive innovation on that side,” he said. “The focus is more on how do we organize, inject fresh energy [and] have a specific focus from an R&D perspective on understanding [advertiser] needs and tailoring solutions to support their requirements.”
