MEDIA & MARKETING:With fewer pages, the business directory is not quite the doorstopper it was in the boom years, writes SIOBHÁN O'CONNELL

FOR MANY businesses, the Golden Pages is their most important annual marketing investment. But how has that spend held up this year in the face of the recession?

The familiar yellow directory has been part of the furniture in Irish homes and offices for 40 years, with information on 157,000 businesses countrywide.

In recent weeks, 1.8 million copies of the 2009/2010 edition have been landing on doorsteps with a new cover and a special 40th-edition badge. But with fewer pages, it’s not quite the doorstopper it was in the boom years.

The Golden Pages is owned by Belgium-based Truvo, which also has directory businesses in Belgium, Romania and Portugal. Accounts for 2008 relating to the Irish operation show revenues falling from €77 million to €74 million. In 2007, the Golden Pages was a licence to print money: the operating profit of €26 million worked out at a stunning profit margin of 34 per cent. That margin declined last year to 27 per cent and this year the slide looks likely to accelerate.

In its half-year results to the end of June 2009, Truvo said it expected group revenues to decline this year by between 16 per cent and 19 per cent and for operating profit to fall by 35 per cent.

“Many of our customers, typically small and medium enterprises, have reduced their advertising spending as a reaction to the negative trends they have experienced in their own businesses and the increasing number of alternatives to printed directories,” says Truvo.

Angelique Kouvelis, Truvo Ireland’s head of marketing, admits that business is tougher. “The man with the van is still advertising but it might be a smaller ad than it was last year and he’s also looking to advertise more online.”

The Golden Pages faces competition from two directions: rival print directories and online information sources. In the print category, the Golden Pages’ main competitor is the Irish Independent Directory, which has an integrated web strategy through www.yourlocal.ie.

Online is also an important part of the Golden Pages’ growth strategy, and www.goldenpages.ie contributes 10 per cent of annual revenues.

About one in six businesses that pay for an advertisement in the Golden Pages also buy a presence on the company’s online search directory. A new development this year is www.truvo.ie, which is built around customer reviews of everything from restaurants to GPs. The Golden Pages has also launched a paid-for service for customers with no website to create their own website linking from their advertisement on goldenpages.ie.

“We are developing a new online strategy over the next three years,” says Kouvelis. “We see ourselves as a multimedia advertising business with products across print, online and mobile.”

The Golden Pages still works for many advertisers because it is used by so many people. The company claims that an average of 675,000 look-ups in the Golden Pages are conducted every day. Searching for a plumber or electrician is still easier in print than online, and in any case one-third of all consumers in Ireland do not use the internet.

But for some big firms, the Golden Pages has become an option, not a necessity. “We used to place an ad every year for Toyota to advertise their list of garages, but we didn’t do it this year,” says Ruth Payne, media director in advertising agency Javelin.

As well as weighing up the merits of the Golden Pages, Independent Directory and Google, companies now also have to consider whether they want a presence in the Eircom phone book. The 2010 phone book has a more enhanced business listings. This is because Truvo now produces and distributes the phone book on behalf of Eircom and has the rights to sell advertisements in its pages.

FOUR FINALISTS have been selected for this year’s Marketer of the Year organised by Marketing magazine.

The four finalists are: Damian Devaney, marketing director, O2 Ireland; Nicky Doran, head of marketing, Bord Gáis Energy; John Noonan, sales and marketing director, Flahavan’s; and Enda Saul, programmes and communications manager, Crisis Pregnancy Agency. The winner will be announced next Thursday.