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Discover Mid-America — November 2005

It’s back…but in a different way
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher

For the last two years, Discover Mid-America has promoted a Best Of competition. The concept, which is mainly about marketing, has been around for many years. Many publications use some form of it, mostly to help introduce businesses to their readers, get readers involved in the publication other than just reading it and to help market businesses that participate and win recognition. A number of Discover Mid-America advertisers have won Best Of awards from their hometown newspaper and publicized that fact, as do advertisers who have won in our two Best Of competitions.

But the success of our Best Of contest hasn’t been quite what I had hoped. Yet I knew — based on my experience in being involved in these types of promotions — that it would take time for participation to grow, particularly since Discover Mid-America is unique in that it has elements of both a trade and consumer publication, not the general interest format that typically runs Best Of contests.

Last year, participation numbers by readers’ voting were nearly double from our first year. That awakening was encouraging. But it also awakened more complaints about the concept.

Some advertisers felt left out because the voting categories were too numerous and didn’t fit their business profile. Others felt it was a just a “popularity” contest, dependent upon which business could successfully “stuff” the ballots in a certain voting category. (Ballots that appeared to be “stuffed” were thrown out both contest years.) Others objected to some winners not fitting the category in which they won — a legitimate complaint in some respects.

But other advertisers liked it and told us so. And I continue to believe in the concept because: 1) it informs readers about businesses associated with Discover Mid-America and 2) it markets the business I and my brother own…and if DMA is marketed well, our advertisers ride on the coattails.

But we’ve canned the Best Of label. It’s gone. I’ve asked two small marketing firms, Baumgardner Enterprises in Blue Springs, MO and DeSieghardt Strategic Communications of Stilwell, KS to help with this year’s contest.

They were asked to do two basic things: make the contest simpler and find ways to increase participation. Conversely, we decided to shorten the ballot and the time for voting (December and January), publicize the contest more widely and come up with a new name to replace Best Of.

Some names I’ve been considering are Readers’ Favorite, Readers’ Choice and Notable Destination. I’ve asked our staff for input, now I’m asking for yours.

Call me at 1-800-899-9730 or email me at publisher@discoverypub.com. Need your thoughts by Nov. 1. Thanks.

> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns