Instituting a TV-style sweeps strategy throughout the organization — picking a platform and pushing it for an entire month — was an idea developed by Cox’s multiplatform marketing department and has also yielded strong results.
During the company’s newspaper sweeps months March and September, for example, the staffs at Cox’s Dayton-area newspapers produce more investigative and enterprise stories that are promoted heavily on radio, TV and their associated websites, as well as in print. “So somebody is a newspaper reader, but they were usually watching a different TV station [than ours],” (Cox Media Group Ohio’s market VP Julia) Wallace said. “Then, they see all our marketing, turn us on and like it and we have a new viewer. That’s been powerful for us.”
