Just ‘ad’ magic

We’re taking a closer look at what makes our working relationship with local and national advertisers so special.

Our advertisers have always been important to us, but it’s a relationship that we’ve cherished even more than usual over the past few months. With the pandemic throwing all workplaces and businesses across Scotland into turmoil – ours included – we’ve concentrated on supporting our advertisers through the transitional period as best we can, adopting an ‘all in this together’ mindset from the start. We’ve been working hard to boost our local economy throughout, but our new support schemes were another step up in our efforts. This includes our Back to Business growth fund – designed to help companies not currently advertising with DC Thomson Media get started with subsidised ad campaigns – and the Food and Drink Fund, targeted specifically to the hospitality industry. Another part of our focus on boosting and supporting advertisers was the innovative Scottish Agricultural Show Online in July. Launched to fill the gap that threatened the agriculture industry as shows got cancelled across the country during lockdown, DC Thomson Media teams pulled together to create and run this online alternative. It proved successful beyond expectations, drawing in 11,172 unique visitors during the course of the weekend. Alison Lowson, marketing manager at Bell Ingram which sponsored the goat category during the show, said: “Bell Ingram was delighted to support the “virtual” Scottish Agricultural Show. With Scotland’s rural events calendar cancelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a fun, imaginative and innovative way of uniting and showcasing the sector during these challenging times. The event generated good brand awareness for Bell Ingram and I can’t praise Katy Gordon, Allhan Rice and Claire McPhillimy enough for making the whole process seamless from start to finish. Well done to everyone at DC Thomson Media for coming up with such a great idea.”