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It was the first time in 32 years that Australia had made it to the World Cup Finals and the country was embracing the beautiful game in a way that they have never done before.
We planned to capitalise on the public’s excitement and produce a 48-page special supplement, that contained everything you needed to know about the tournament, and explain some things about the game that the average Australian may not know.
We sourced most stories from AAP and with the Graphic News service was able to create informative and attractive graphics throughout.
We, of course, paid special attention to the chances of our Socceroos and the teams in our immediate group.
History of the tournament and the key players to look for were also high priorities for us.
On the centre pages we created the whole draw for readers to fill in as they followed the tournament, and because one of our free-to-air TV stations, SBS, was telecasting every match live, the draw doubled as a complete TV guide. This alone would keep the product in readers homes for the entire month.
The back half of the magazine was dedicated to information about every team, group by group.
The supplement was a huge success, and on a day (Monday) when our advertising is at it’s lowest, the extra $23,000 it generated in ads was fantastic. It doubled our usual advertising revenue for a Monday.
Special packages were supplied to local schools for teachers to use with their students as the tournament progressed, and were a big hit with the students.
We are only a small newspaper with an average circulation on Mondays of 36,000, the supplement gave as a 1.4% increase on the day, and would have a much longer shelf life than our normal product, giving us a presence in peoples home for a sustained period.
The whole product was put together with a very small staff, working long hours, and was a credit to those who made it happen. |