The organisers of Embedded World have released the results of their annual readership study. With the close ties the show has with Weka, it’s probably not surprising that the top three titles are M&T, Elektronik and D&E. Equally unsurprising, Elektronik Praxis follows Weka’s “big three”. But then the results get interesting. The fifth most-read title – according to this survey – is Elektor, and E&E is the third-highest ranking non-Weka title.

What does this all mean? Of course all the recent readership surveys have their limitations, and I could point to a number of different issues with the Embedded World methodology (for example there are several reasons why sample isn’t likely to be representative of the German electronics industry as a whole).But it does still offer us some useful insights: perhaps we weren’t going mad when we put Elektor on some clients’ schedules, and naturally E&E are going to be pleased with such a good result so soon after their relaunch. There is one thing for sure – it guarantees that the German publishing landscape will remain interesting throughout 2009.

Tags: Embedded World, Germany, Research, Shows and Events

Thanks to elektronik + embedded systems who published an article about Napier’s recent distribution survey in the distribution feature in their first issue of this year. Our research was picked up by experienced freelance journalist Theo Van Gelder, who wrote a great article on the subject. Although I write a fair number of articles that get published with client bylines, it is always nice to get a credit in print!

Tags: Netherlands, News About Napier, Research

I really liked this presentation about the future of our industry that Chris has recently posted to slideshare. It’s a great overview of the technological challenges facing the industry that is presented in a way that non-engineers can understand.

Tags: Research

After months of talking, the results of the AgLa survey are finally out. This is the study sponsored by E&E, Elektronik Informationen, Elektronik Industrie, Elektronik Praxis and Elektronik Journal to answer the Weka-sponsored La Elfa study.

So who were the winners and losers? Well not surprisingly the raw readership results are less flattering for the three Weka titles than La Elfa, although unsurprisingly even this study still shows M&T as the title with the highest reach. Elektronik Praxis does well, beating Elektronik to have the second-highest reach. Elektronik Industrie is another winner, “beating” D&E. In this study respondents are asked about the pan-European titles, which don’t score well, although EPN gets the highest readership (who says product books are dead!).

So what does this mean? Well like all studies this one isn’t the perfect solution to media planning – like all the others it provides useful information, but also can’t be the perfect answer. Even if the surveys were perfect, we still wouldn’t plan a media schedule by blindly chasing the highest reach (and there should be a special mention for Elektronik Informationen, which was the first title to contact me about the study, and to highlight the positive conclusions you can draw about the title from the study). Why not contact me for a more detailed comparison of the two surveys?

Tags: Elektronik, Elektronik Industrie, Elektronik Journal, Elektronik Praxis, EuE, Germany, Markt und Technik, Research

In the past we’ve conducted research about the European electronics media that has given clients and publishers a better view of the way that European engineers obtain information about products. For our latest project, we decided to look at the way distributors are perceived by engineers and purchasers in Europe. This has been a fascinating project for me, as during my career I used distributors when I was an engineer, worked for a distributor and also worked for a manufacturer with an extensive distribution network.

Our research looks at the popularity of distributors by region, allowing comparisons to be made between local distributors, pan-European organisations and global players. Some of the key findings from the research include:

We are currently finalising our summary and full reports. If you would like to get a copy of one of these reports, please email me.

Tags: Research

Congratulations to Jørn Poulsen, a Project Manager at Crysberg, who was the lucky winner of the iPod Touch from our distribution survey.

Tags: Research

The organisers of SENSOR+TEST 2008 have released the results of their visitor and exhibitor numbers, as well as final attendance figures. Although visitor numbers were slightly below expectations, the show appears to have been successful, and quality of attendees was highlighted in the exhibitor survey.

The show was held in May, and we were interested to see that an optimistic 91% of visitors didn’t expect an econmic downturn: we wonder whether that level of optimism remains in the industry today!

Tags: Germany, Research, Shows and Events

Pretty much every title in the industry offers an electronica package to boost advertising around the world’s largest electronic components show, so I don’t try to cover every one in Napier News – simply contact Napier if you want to know the options. PSDE, however, have again put together an interesting offer, with advertisers in the electronica Show 2008 issue (October 2008) benefitting from an advertising audit atudy as well as the pretty standard bonus distribution at the show and the opportunity to feature products in three electronica special ePowerPack e-newsletters.

Tags: electronica, PSDE, Research

Readers of Napier News may be interested to know that Napier is conducting a research study into the perception of distributors across Europe. I know that the study will be very useful for marketers working in both distributors and manufacturers, and we will be publishing the headline results in our Napier News email that will appear at the end of August.

Tags: News About Napier, Research

The LA ELFA 07/08 data has been fed into an online tool for marketers allowing them to select their target audience, and get readers hp figures based upon the LA ELFA survey. Putting the data in this tool is a great way for Weka to market their titles, and the online interface is simple and easy to use (although we had some problems with 404 errors). Whatever your view on the accuracy of the survey, we liked the tool, and the results are a great way to start discussion on your next advertising strategy.

Tags: Germany, Research

We’ve been reviewing the results of the LA ELFA German readership study with interest. In previous years, there have been huge arguments over this Weka-sponsored* research, but it remains the best research into what titles are read by German engineers. Of course, as with any study, the potential sources of bias must always be considered when interpreting the results.

Unsurprisingly (because of their market position, not just because of the sponsor of the study), Weka titles do well. We probably didn’t need a survey to show that Elektronik – the title that publishes the most in-depth articles is rated highest as the “Prefered title for indepth technical articles” (their spelling, not ours!), nor are we surprised to know that the industry weekly newspaper, Markt & Technik is the “Prefered title for industry news”!

With little other research to compare with LA ELFA, it’s difficult to make detailed comments on the readership figures. Things look good for the industry in general, as every magazine except for Elektronik Journal has increased its readership since the 2003 study, and EJ has increased readership since 2003. M&T and Elektronik are both shown to maintain their leadership, although Weka titles D&E and M&T appear to be growing readership more slowly than the industry average. The results showed Elektronik Praxis strengthening its position as the 3rd-best read title in the survey, at a time when other research shows Praxis losing advertising market share. If you add in the fact that your company is probably only interested in certain end-markets, it’s obvious that you cannot base magazine selection decisions purely on this survey!

One interesting question looks at whether respondents read English-language pan-European titles. 12% said they read English titles, whereas 87% read German titles. But with German-language titles typically having double the circulation in German of pan-European titles (e.g comparing M&T with EE Times Europe or Elektronik with EDN Europe), and the greater number of German titles available, perhaps the pan-European magazines are not doing quite as bad as you might think: pan-European titles offer the opportunity to reach a large number of countries [relatively] cost-effectively, despite the fact that their reach in any particular country is limited.

Still confused about which titles offer the best return on investment? Contact Napier and we’ll help you plan a campaign that produces the best possible results.

*note – the first REELFA study (2001) was sponsored by a broad cross-section of German electronics publishers.

Tags: Germany, Research

The 17th Annual International Electronics Forum (IEF2008), organised by Future Horizons will be held from 7th to 9th May, 2008 in Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE. For registration information, visit the event’s website.

Tags: Research, Shows and Events