Readers of TheMarioBlog know that I am usually a fan of wrap around ads—those four-page “supplements” that wrap the print edition of a newspaper when the advertiser is willing to pay the premium price for such positioning.
Those wrap around ads usually work, and one can tell immediately that the content of that “front page” is advertising and not editorial.
That’s why I was a big confused while passing through the Madrid Airport Monday, June 10. Both El Pais, the leading newspaper in the market, and Cinco Dias, a financial daily (and less known) sold their front page to Mitsubishi Electric, to pitch its air conditioners. That is fine.
As I am not a regular reader of Cinco Dias, I was totally confused as I thought such content WAS the front page. However, I knew that a real front page of a newspaper in Spain on this Monday would be displaying the 12th victory of favorite son Rafael Nadal at the Roland Garros Finals in Paris.
So, first let’s take a look at how both El Pais and Cinco Dias displayed the wrap around ad:
When I turned around at the same press shop, two other Spanish dailies, Barcelona’s La Vanguardia, and Madrid’s ABC both had Rafa Nadal on the cover—and no Mitsubishi wrap around ad. This is what I was expecting.
Then, both El Pais and Cinco Dias had their regular front page as a Page 3, shown below:
Perhaps the reason I don’t believe these wrap around ads work effectively is because those who design them made them to look too much like a regular front page (even with different type fonts), so just like I was confused, so were many other readers. Let those wrap around ads look like ads as we see in this example below from The New York Times:
More about wrap around ads
Mario’s speaking engagements
Here are places where I will be taking the message of mobile storytelling in the weeks ahead:
June 12, NEC Media City, Bergen, Norway, Storytelling workshop for Editors
June 13, Fortellingens kraft 2019, Bergen, Norway, Long form Mobile Storytelling for Writers
July 11, Florida Media Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, Keynote for editors: The mobile first newspaper strategy.
Mario’s weekend rituals…..
Monocle interviews me about what I do on a typical weekend (is there such a thing? Not for someone like me who is seldom in the same location twice. But I gave it my best shot, for what may come as a normal weekend, when I am home in New York! Enjoy.
https://monocle.com/minute/2019/04/27/
Pre-order The Story
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/shop-the-bookstore?olsPage=products%2Fthe-story
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post #3070