Portland, Maine-based Local Thunder says it's helping a northern Michigan newspaper respond to Web competition.
Local Thunder helped the Petoskey News Review develop a shopping Web site featuring content-rich display ads, e-commerce capabilities and opt-in e-mail campaigns for local consumers.
In just two months, the new site. www.shopsmartupnorth.com, brought more than 45 new online advertisers to the newspaper, which is owned by Schurz Communications Inc. of South Bend, Ind.
“We needed a strategy to generate new advertising dollars without negatively affecting our traditional print advertising revenue," said Christy Lyons, Petoskey News Review advertising director. "Our corporate office mentioned that they had worked with Local Thunder to develop online initiatives for their radio and TV stations and when we heard about their successes, we knew that we had found the right partner for us. Their turnkey solution had us up and running in under eight weeks and since our launch in May, 45 new advertisers have already committed budget to the new site as an extension of their promotional mix.”
In addition to generating incremental revenue from their existing advertisers, Lyons said the new online shopping environment is already helping the newspaper forge new relationships with non-traditional advertisers.
“One of the most appealing aspects of our new initiative is that we have been able to offer an effective promotional platform for smaller businesses that traditionally have not had the time or the resources to develop a Web presence or to do any kind of print advertising,” Lyons said.
One of the keys to the paper’s early successes with their new online initiative has been cross promotion.
“We have invested heavily in print and radio advertising and have taken every opportunity to talk about it at business events in our local area," Lyons said. "It has really paid off so far and we are very optimistic for the future.”
Local Thunder offers products and services that help local TV, radio stations and media groups leverage their strong offline brands in the online market. Local media in all size markets across North America have chosen Local Thunder as the foundation for their local online revenue strategy.
More at www.localthunder.com.
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