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Northcliffe Electronic Publishing (NEP) has struck a national

advertising campaign for Boots by approaching websites owned by rival

local newspaper publishers to offer a cross-publisher package.

NEP approached Boots' retail agency, Dialect, to present its portfolio

and worked out a potential campaign to target people around Boots' 12

biggest stores in cities such as London, Nottingham, Manchester and

Newcastle.

Because some of the stores were in areas where Northcliffe does not

publish regional newspapers or websites, Dialect asked them to

co-ordinate the campaign with other publishers.

As a result, websites owned by Trinity Mirror, Guardian Media Group,

Newsquest, Associated Newspapers banded together with Northcliffe to

offer Boots a nationwide package.

NEP produced the creative for the ads, which feature a seven-day

countdown to a sale, plus links to generic advertising and information

on the local store.

"This is the first time that publishers have got together in this way as

far as I know," said NEP business development director Ben Lewis. "It

makes life far easier for the client and the agency - and it's something

we can do again on a larger scale."

According to Lewis, this way of booking a campaign enables far greater

targeting than the traditional way of booking regional websites, where

sites are booked in regional clusters - as is the case with print

campaigns.

"By forging this partnership we were able to offer Boots a real

alternative to the traditional online advertising model," added Lewis.

"This campaign is nationwide in reach and local in application."