Print Advertising

All fundraising ads must by law mention that Whisper is a registered charity. Usually the registration number 1139078 will be mentioned too, unless space is very tight.

No VAT

Charity advertising (including the cost of design) is zero-rated for UK VAT. To qualify, the ads must use somebody else’s time or space; so for example, ads on the charity’s own website aren’t zero-rated.

This includes printed brochures but not exhibition stands.

Most sellers of advertising should be familiar with this, but in some cases you might have to mention it.

Metro and Evening Standard

The Metro and Evening Standard classified ads http://www.metroclassified.co.uk offer a late space flexi deal for charities. You send them the artwork in advance, and on a day when they have spare space in the classified ad section, they will ring you and you will need to pay right away over the phone with a card or with a bank transfer. Charges are as follows:

• Quarter page (170mm high x 132mm wide): £400
• Eighth page (110mm high x 98mm wide): £200
• 10cm x 2 columns (100mm high x 65mm wide): £100
• Free colour
• They can help with artwork free of charge

Their charity specialist is Janice North janice.north@metro.co.uk whose direct line is 020 3615 0577. In our experience, she is very busy and hard to contact but she will get back to you, particularly if you e-mail completed artwork to her in advance to show that you are serious. The classified department’s main number is 020 3615 1754.

The Big Issue

In April 2015 we paid £374 in total for a 1/8 page full colour ad running for two weeks. This included a charity discount and a further discount for posting the ad for 2 weeks.

I don’t think we had any responses from it. Magazine advertising is notoriously low-response.

Copy needs to be e-mailed as a 300+dpi CMYK PDF (all fonts embedded) to terry.cimini@borngroup.com and the deadline is 10-11am on the Friday before the magazine is published.

Advertising on Trains

http://www.kbhontrainmedia.co.uk offers advertising on trains, particularly in the form of “traincards”, which are square advertising panels on the walls of the train. They seem like a good idea although we haven’t tried them yet.