Olsen&Associates

Objective:

• Introduce Northern Nevada Business Weekly (NNBW) to the Reno-Sparks business community
• Gain credibility from readers and advertisers

Describe project:

With the challenge of launching a media product which would compete with current media and a limited budget, we went to the drawing board with a lead-time of five weeks to create a plan and implement.

Our first-year plan incorporated media partnerships, a speaker's bureau, outreach and strategic alliances with business organizations, brand management and messaging, business event sponsorships, readership surveys, key business leader feedback luncheons, subscription promotions, reader and advertiser surveys and general marketing consultation. Media partnerships and business news sharing afforded NNBW advertising airtime on the leading television and radio stations. Strategic alliances with many business organizations and inclusion in their newsletters gave us acceptance with their members. We also conducted monthly luncheons with business leaders in a "guest editorial board" format, asking for feedback and ideas. This gave us buy-in. We created a brand handbook to ensure consistency with all activities.

Outcome:

• 90% of reader and advertiser surveyed by NNBW indicate that NNBW is their primary source of business news
• 95.9% of readers and subscribers in an independent study, indicated they would be very likely to recommend NNBW to others

NNBW is a successful, profitable and established publication, now in its sixth year, breaking even at the 2 year mark. There is instant recognition of the brand in the marketplace.