Latest Ad News from Norway

It's been three months since you were named Sales Manager of the Year at the Bonnier Sales Awards. How was it to come home to Oslo with a prize in your pocket? And why do you think you won?

They had a huge celebration for me at the office, and I got a bit of attention in the trade press as well, at Kampanje and E24. I think the basis of my win was a combination of the good numbers achieved by the entire advertising sales department during 2010, and how we achieved them. Print is under pressure and is losing market share to the rest of the media industry, but we managed to increase revenues by 32 percent compared to 2009. 

What are you most proud of in your job?

That we have a consistent sales department where every employee delivers both quality and quantity. We continue to achieve success and grow in a tough market. Plus we have launched two new magazines, Stella and Tara Smak, both of which we have managed to sell way over budget and expectations. 

How does it look for the rest of the year?

We work both with long- and short-term goals and try continually to solve our customers' communication challenges with a very close dialog with them. We have a strong focus on thinking new and differently in order to be more attractive for customers. We celebrate the best sales rep quarterly and yearly. And the yearly winner will also be nominated to the Bonnier Sales Awards 2011.  

What are the biggest challenges for the Norwegian market?

That we're losing ground compared to other media channels, above all at media bureaus. We see that more and more of  revenues are coming from digital, which is in a strong growth phase. We're also losing out to daily newspaper special inserts, which have a broad reach and short deadlines. There are a lot of reasons why, but one is that our industry is generally under pressure and we're losing readers. It means that it's both more expensive and more difficult to reach enough of a target audience with magazines and weeklies. We see that more and more advertising is sales-driven rather than brand-driven, and there magazines have more difficulty in showing their effectiveness. We're working right now in different projects to show proof with analysis that our channel really sells products.

What are your best tips for winning the Bonnier Sales Awards?

To learn as much as possible about your own media channels, but also about other channels, regarding strengths and weaknesses. In the big picture, media has become very fragmented, which means the choice of media is more complicated, but at the same time it provides more opportunities. It's this that we need to focus on, so we can pull our customers in even tighter and use our advantages. We need to be advisors and not just sales reps. 

What are you looking forward to for the rest of 2011?

I'm really looking forward to fall, then we can really show our excellence. Grow more and meet the goals we've set. The sales reps are a motivated and dynamic group well-equipped for new challenges. Furthermore, we're working with new things that will be launched in the fall. Among other things is a Christmas present magazine from Bo Bedre that will be an exciting project!