World Market Retailer Courted for Years, Good Deal for a Handful of AWN Papers

By Sarah Billingsley,
AWN Communications Director

Sometimes the biggest ad buys aren’t necessarily the biggest story.    In this story, it’s about a client that many of us (who have sold advertising) have tried to make headway with… and when someone finally does, it’s worth noting.

This is the case with this year’s Cost Plus World Market advertising buy sold by The San Francisco Bay Guardian‘s veteran national sales representative Mary Samson.  The retailer’s  print budget for AWN is just over $20K in its entirety, but it serves four well-suited alt weekly markets (Boise, Bend, Eugene in the Pacific Northwest and Lafayette in Louisiana).  Mary’s determination to move that boulder a little further up the hill is what made this transaction AWN sales blog material.   Here’s a short recap of Mary’s sales journey with the long-time SF Bay Area retailer.

The Cost Plus Story
Cost Plus World Market, headquartered in Emeryville, CA has advertised in alt weeklies  successfully over the years. Their brand has been a perfect fit for an AWN demographic with CostPluscompetitive prices, wide selection,  and original products from around the World (everything from furnishings to unique gifts, wine and hard to find international foods).   Cost Plus opened their first store at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco in 1958 but has since grown to 260 stores across 30 states.  They were at one time described as a much larger, low-cost version of Pier 1.   Today, they’re regarded in the SF Bay Area as something more akin to a  ‘local IKEA’ according to Mary.

Like many retail businesses who encountered more economic challenges as the second half of the decade wore on, Cost Plus World Market had only used print advertising sporadically through the mid-decade.    Mary stayed close to the account over the long haul and finally opened up the conversation and made a deal with their marketing director last year with CPWM resulting in a consistent print campaign for Boise Weekly.

Note:  CPWM also ran a digital ad campaign in Boise over the second half of last year through HanzMediaInc. that coincided with their print strategies.

The success in Boise in 2009, as CPWM marketing director pointed out “finally helped to distinguish alt weeklies from ROP dailies.”   The Boise campaign earned much-appreciated positive feedback from the market and stores.   People were walking in the store with the Boise Weekly ad in their hands.   May says the CPWM marketing director understands AWN’s demographic and believes in Alt weeklies, so she was able to expand the alt weekly buy to additional markets now including Boise Weekly, Times of Acadiana,  Source Weekly and Eugene Weekly.    CPWM is currently running FP 4-C product ads with sale price points for household items, wine, home furnishings regularly in these four AWN member papers.

Way to go, Ms. Mary! One small step for (wo)man…

About Mary:
Mary Samson has been representing The San Francisco Bay Guardian and AWN since 2004.

B&W Fractional Size Mary

Mary Sampson

She has been in the top 5 AWN sellers since her introduction to the network.   Mary has a total of 18 years experience in ad sales including six years in International ad sales for The Wall Street Journal where she was a top 10 sales person worldwide. Her expertise in agency relations and calling on top levels have contributed to AWN’s service-oriented reputation.

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