Many individual case studies over the years have proven the effectiveness of newsbrands as part of the media mix.

Yet until now there has been no large scale study to conclusively demonstrate and quantify the value that newsbrands bring to advertisers and the return on investment that they deliver.

Newsworks commissioned the highly respected econometrics consultancy Benchmarketing, led by managing director Sally Dickerson, to carry out a detailed analysis to provide this evidence. Benchmarketing conducted a meta-analysis of over 500 econometric models from 2011-2016. Meta-analysis is common in pharmaceuticals, particularly in clinical drugs trials. One trial isn’t enough, you need hundreds to be sure of your results.

The results paint an impressive picture for the role of newsbrands. Key findings include:

• Adding newspapers to a campaign increases overall campaign effectiveness, ranging from a 20% improvement in FMCG campaigns to up to four times for services campaigns
• Newspapers supercharge the effectiveness of other media when they are included in the mix, with improvements in ROI ranging from two times (for TV), four times (for online display) to 10 times (for radio)
• Adding digital newsbrands to the mix boosts newspaper ROI by up to five times

Watch the summary

Sally Dickerson, managing director of Benchmarketing, talks through the key findings of the ROI study.