Meridian Awards 2010

For the past year, I have been using MapInfo in my position as a market research analyst at The Chronicle Herald, an independent newspaper based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. We have seen the benefits of MapInfo in several departments; however, the most prominent improvements have been in our distribution and advertising departments.

Our distribution department utilizes MapInfo to increase circulation throughout the province. With figures obtained from our annual Audit, we now have the ability to map where our strong and weak areas are in terms of circulation (see map titled HH Coverage by County). Using the map as a basis, we analyze factors such as competition, our distribution capabilities, and/or any substantial demographic differences within each area. Once we have determined what issues are causing this lower circulation, we can base any new marketing campaigns on our newly revealed data. In times of decreased readership throughout the country, The Chronicle Herald has remained the number one selling newspaper in Nova Scotia, and one of the few nationally who experienced an increase in circulation during the last year.

Our advertising department, which distributes flyers on our clients behalf, has also used MapInfo to gain and upsell clients (see map titled Bobs Unique Furniture). Our flyer distribution is generally FSA based, and we can now send our clients maps of their current market coverage as well as any proposed increase. Since a lot of our national clients are unfamiliar with the geography of Nova Scotia, MapInfo makes it much easier for them to understand and comprehend their coverage. We use the maps, along with demographic statistics, to help each client maximize the visibility among their target market.

MapInfo has made a significant improvement in several areas of our business, and I'm sure that we will continue to see these benefits as we progress in our knowledge of the softwares attributes.