Pandora has credited its controversial demand for editorial integration with publishers as a major reason for its success in the Australian market.
Jeff Burnes, the Australian marketer behind jewellery brand Pandora, which is Australia’s biggest jewellery brand after quickly grabbing 32% of the retail jewellery market with $400 million-plus in sales last year, told AdNews that the company’s editorial integration approach with media owners is one of the most important factors in its rapid rise.
The lion’s share of Burnes' $6-million media advertising budget has been going to major magazine publishers, but there’s a catch. Part of his magazine deals is a stipulation that Pandora gets plenty of editorial coverage.
Burnes says without it, Pandora’s advertising brand communications would be half as effective. “There’s only so much we can say in our ads, our above-the-line campaign,” he says. “So the relationship we have with media is multi-faceted. We do need above the-line but we also need the integration with editorial.”
Every October, Pandora and its media agency MediaCom puts out a brief to magazine publishers and TV operators outlining its budgets for the next year. They want to know what ad deals can be delivered along with the crucial elements of editorial integration.
Editorial and advertising teams then pitch their ideas. “Rates, added value, [editorial] integration opportunities and positioning within the magazine are the main criteria when we are planning a media strategy,” Burnes says.
This year Pandora has slashed its magazine titles by a third – from 30 down to 20. Although it has been ACP and Pacific that have lured most of Pandora’s magazine budget, the company’s rising ad budgets have attention from newspaper groups for their magazine inserts.
News Limited is showing far more interest than Fairfax, Burnes says, and he’s interested because of the national distribution of single format magazine titles inside newspapers.
It’s a major cultural shift for newspaper companies to talk editorial integration but Burnes says News Limited has been doing a fine job.
“We’re happy with the way things are going there. Rather than looking at it from a one-dimensional relationship, News Limited is looking at a more holistic link with advertising and editorial sponsorship opportunities.
“I’m not sure how much of a priority we are to Fairfax. The relationship just isn’t there,” he says.
Pandora’s Australian strategy has been so successful, Burnes says the UK and US are now replicating it and new markets such as China are doing likewise.
By the end of the year he says the US$6-billion company will overtake Tiffany to be the second ranked global jewellery player behind Cartier.
“The UK is now totally aligned to Australia’s positioning in that upper end of affordable luxury and by the end of the year, the US will be too,” Burnes says.
“All our new markets are replicating the Australian model.” And to ensure the Australian way is Pandora’s global way, Burnes sits on the international content committee to make sure the brand is “aligned around the world”.
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