A Daily Mail Child

I started my paper round a week before my 13^th birthday and I remember being taken aback by how many people read The Sun or Daily Mirror.  Why didn’t everyone read the Daily Mail like my parents did?  I noticed that the handful of houses that did take the Daily Mail were a bit tidier than those receiving red tops.

From a young age, I was hooked into the genius of the Daily Mail as the voice of those aspiring to the middle class.  For the last 3 years I have had the privilege to work for the group that publishes the title.  This week that came to an end as Motors.co.uk was acquired by Manheimfrom the Daily Mail & General Trust.

On a paper round of 35-40 houses, I would deliver at best one or two national broadsheets (only The Times and The Daily Telegraph) making them feel niche.  The Daily Mail, therefore, was my only understanding of a “quality” newspaper.  Holding fast to Thatcher’s vision, no media was probably more influential in my youth.

I know that the fashion is to view the title with cynicism, but I have grown to understand that the title is a masterstroke of positioning.  The target audience is middle aged housewives in lower/average middle class families, but its trick is that it feels like so much more to these readers and always holds the impression of being a quality newspaper without being snooty and “too wordy” (my mum’s words) like The Times. 

The paper faces an ageing readership and a society that is reading fewer newspapers, but the Mail rises strong online.  The profits may never be as big as print, but there is no doubting that the vision/strategy/luck of backing a celebrity news driven website has been the right one.   I felt a sense of pride when the site was named the most visited newspaper website in the world.  I chuckled that the mighty New York Times had to resort to a debate about audience measurement, I’m not sure too many care about comScore’s classification methods. 

The website became an addiction of mine.  Not because I worked within the same office where it was created, but because I am a shameless internet news junky.  Consequently, I have given up the Daily Mail website for lent (along with the Guardian and BBC websites – other mainstays).  My conclusion so far?  No other site is able to provide the immediacy and variety that I’ve become so used to. 

But the thing I’m really struggling to find on other sites is opinion.  I may not always agree with the Mail’s view (remember I’m not a housewife!), but at least there is one.  In this abstinence I have even considered a subscription to The Times online as no other site provides free access to strong (and professional) opinions.  With this I really hope that the government relaxes rules on the independence of television news. 

Fox News may irritate many, but it entertains significantly more.  I would love to see a Daily Mail news channel on TV.  I’m confident that opinionated (but never extremist) news content would make news accessible to the masses.

Although Motors.co.uk moves on to an exciting future with Manheim, I will find it hard to accept that I’m no longer part of the Mail machine (even though I was never properly involved).  But herein lies the paper’s ability to embed itself firmly in the hearts and minds of its loyal audience. 

We often hear theories about the future of media and the influence that the Mail will have should not be understated.  And what’s more, we shouldn’t be scared by it…

Good marketing

As a growing brand at Motors.co.uk, we spend a lot of time trying to think about how we can do things differently.  Whilst we exist commercially to increase response for car dealers, the route to how we achieve this is in making ourselves well known to consumers and also optimising the search for a used car.

An area that we believe serves both purposes is championing the cause of the motorist and ensuring that we get a fair deal with easy access to information.

Recently this area overlapped with my personal life when my son grew out of his baby car seat.  A good friend had opted for a rear facing car seat and had made me aware of the key safety benefits (eg 7 times more likely to survive a crash).  I understood the basic physics and I felt compelled to make the purchase.  What I couldn’t understand though was when I searched the major retailers websites I couldn’t find any rear facing car seats.

Internet access proved vital, drawing on the excellent www.rearfacing.co.uk as well as retailers www.pushchairsandcarseats.co.uk and www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk.  But most frequently I found myself on the pages of the manufacturers themselves to make sense of ridiculous fitting requirements and which cars fitted which models.  When I would find a model that I liked, I had to spend time Google’ing to find whether the model was available in the UK – invariably they weren’t.

I found myself indignant at the poor choice in the UK, particularly given that the manufacturer sites I was looking at were brands we recognise in the UK.  But for some reason UK consumers are not privileged to have the option to buy the safer option.

Clearly retailers are worried about the potential extra work of installation which is a fairly appalling reason to not offer the choice (simply reflect it in the pricing).  The car seats are expensive compared to forward facing, but this I’m sure is a victim of the low volumes being ordered into the UK.  Fundamentally though, the British consumer needs to have the choice.

I certainly don’t want to suggest that rear facing car seats should be mandatory, but we should be at least be given the choice and education as to the benefits of both.

If I had struggled to find this information, having had the benefit of a friend who was a minor expert and having spent hours reading various articles on the internet, I was fairly certain that the general public would be lacking.  Consequently, at Motors.co.uk we commissioned research into awareness of rear facing car seats.  Unsurprisingly, but disappointingly, 53% of parents felt there was a lack of information, and 52% of parents would consider buying rear facing once presented with the safety benefits.

The survey allowed us to get valuable media time for a number of experts on the subject including Helena (rearfacing.co.uk) and Jullian Preston-Powers (neuroprotective specialist at the University of Sussex).  I also made a couple of radio appearances too (there was even rumours at one point of a slot on This Morning).

In all honesty, I was disappointed by the initial media coverage as I passionately believe this is a subject that is dreadfully covered in the UK.  This fits squarely with the Motors brand of empowering the motorist and promoting choice and so we will continue to investigate how we can increase its exposure.

January was a humbling month in general for our marketing team as we also launched our “most deserving” campaign to give a local hero up to £10,000 towards a car as well as £2,000 for a charity of their choice (mostdeserving.motors.co.uk).  Some of the stories have blown us away, with individuals who set an incredible example of selflessness and support for others.

The end game of our marketing budget remains the same, but it is certainly rewarding when we are able to find ways of using it to coincide with pushing good causes. It’s too early to say what the correct mix within our budget should be, but it has certainly encouraged the team at Motors.co.uk to think wider. It's nice to think that marketing an online brand can go beyond Google, and influence change.


Ps it should be noted that since we launched the campaign John Lewis made available the Recaro Polaric rear facing car seat, but it’s still not a good enough choice…