Executive Summary:

The Packer is the leading newspaper of the fresh produce industry since 1893. The Packer serves most areas of the industry, including growers, packers, shippers, retailers, distributors, and foodservice. Prior to the re-design, ThePacker.com offered limited content, few opportunities for reader interaction, few sponsorship options, and was plagued by a cumbersome registration process. The site averaged between 70-90,000 pageviews per month. ThePacker.com was redesigned to accommodate a much greater volume of content, more opportunities for search engine optimization, deeper audience interaction, a wider format and friendlier user interface, and greater sponsorship opportunities. After the re-design, ThePacker.com has seen nearly double the pageviews, with an average of 140,000 per month.

The Challenge

• Provide readers with a significantly greater volume of content than before, including ALL Packer news stories and their updates on ThePacker.com
• Foster real audience interaction and engagement in measurable ways
• Allow articles to be published to various locations and to be sent to readers via automated topical news alerts
• Provide greater advertising opportunities and value for clients seeking a more targeted advertising approach

The Insight

• Using the tabbed-box format and expandable menus throughout the site, we allow users to choose the content they want to see by department, popularity or topic
• With a simple WYSIWYG editor and a four-step posting process, Packer writers and editors can post a greater volume of content quickly and easily
• Implementing a robust tagging system allows content to be published in a variety of places and formats
• Advertising can be displayed based on content feed, content category, sitemap page or article to better target audiences
• We can invite audience engagement by introducing story commenting, social network sharing, voting and blogging options on the new ThePacker.com

The Campaign

• Site launch coincided with the United Fresh – Fresh Summit industry trade show, where it was heavily promoted by personal visits to prospects and giveaways at the show booth
• Held a “Win a Netbook” giveaway promotion for registering on the site. Promoted giveaway via a Welcome-page ad on the site, as well as in print and across sister publications
• Promoted site launch in The Packer weekly newspaper, as well as in all Packer and sister publication e-newsletters

The Achievement

• Web site traffic on ThePacker.com has nearly doubled since the redesign and continues to rise
• Ad inventory more than quadrupled in the new ThePacker.com
• Audiences are commenting, rating stories and providing feedback more than ever before, and interaction is increasing
• Packer writers are posting nearly four times more content than they did before the redesign

For more information, please contact Tom Denison, Vice President, at tdenison@vancepublishing.com 847.634.4353 or visit thepacker.com