I had a very weird experience last week.
A supplier came in with a stack of magazines.
Lately there had been lots of advertising on his titles.
It’s a new magazine and had been launched recently in Kuwait.
So as a good will gesture they were giving many clients free insertions with the hope that some months down the line they will get good support with paid ads.
This is the way suppliers deal, if they are looking at a long term business with clients especially the advertising agencies.
So, six months later most clients still had the luxury of placing free insertions in this magazine.
After six full months, the supplier had to keep their magazine full with lots of ads only to show that it is loaded with advertising support.
The pressure for the magazine was probably building on to get clients to have paid ads inside the magazines. I guess many agencies were just getting their ads across without even paying anything for it.
A free ad is always welcome but when you are expected to pay, you provide a cold shoulder!
And in these times of recession, free is the most expensive thing. Everyone wants but one rarely gives!
So there was this constant push from this supplier to all agencies for paid support so that their employees could be justified of their salaries. To the extent that the CEO of the company went personally to each company about their offers and promotion.
Thats the Catch-22 situation.
You give free ads all along and when you expect your magazine to pick up paid ads, everyone just throw in their middle finger!
Not easy to run a magazine business coz’ the market is flooded with me-toos!
Sad… the last news we heard that the CEO suffered a major heart attack!
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Sad re.. Free is such an addictive word..