Managing £1M+ in offline media — and making it work harder

The situation

Serious Readers was built on offline media. Press ads. Direct mail. Catalogue inserts. Even some TV. Over £1M a year going into these channels.

When I took over, I wanted to understand what was actually working. Which channels earned their keep? Which were legacy spend that nobody had questioned?

Costs were rising too. Paper prices up. Postage rates climbing. We couldn't keep doing the same thing and expect the same returns.

Something had to change.

What I did

Took full ownership of the offline operation. Not just media buying — everything. Briefed and created all materials. Wrote the copy. Directed the creative. Managed schedules. Negotiated with publishers and print houses.

Worked out what was actually performing

I tracked everything. Unique codes on every piece. Response rates by format, by publication, by mailing window.

That data told me which channels earned their place and which were just habit. Direct mail consistently outperformed. Some press titles delivered, others didn't. I reallocated budget based on what the numbers showed.

Reduced overall spend

We didn't need to spend as much as we were. I cut waste without cutting results. Pulled back from underperforming channels. Negotiated better rates. Made the budget work harder.

Optimised formats

When paper costs spiked, I tested stripping our inserts right back. Turned out customers responded to the headline, the offer, and the call to action — not pages of padding.

What made it work

Most people treat offline media like a black box. Money goes in, customers come out, nobody asks questions.

I asked questions. Where's this actually working? Why are we still running that? What would happen if we stopped?

The answers let me reduce spend while maintaining acquisition. Not by doing less — by doing less of the wrong things.

Results

Reduced overall offline spend while maintaining customer acquisition costs. Shifted budget to the channels that actually performed. Built a system where every pound was tracked and justified.

Over £1M in annual spend, properly managed. No waste. No "we've always done it this way."