Aug

May 2018

• The field team have evolved in the last 12 months and have transformed from a typical functional team into Brand Ambassadors.

• This shows their flexibility and breadth, how we are making the news

category relevant and connecting brands with audiences through brilliant activation in a positive way in store, to generate extra copies and revenue for News UK.

l,

TRANSFORMATION CONTINUES INTO 2018

OUR JOURNEY HAS DELIVERED FOR THE CUSTOMER AND TEAM

POWERFORCE ACCREDITED IN APRIL 2018 A GREAT PLACE TO WORK

16,000 PERFECT SHOPS (+15% ahead of target) 11,000 DISPLAYS

13,616 WEBSITE SIGNUPS 9 (+36% ahead of target) 7,000 RETAILERS MAPPED TO HOME NEWS DELIVERY WEBSITE

8,500 STORES ACTIVATED WITH BRAND CAMPAIGNS 7,052 NATIONAL ACCOUNTS ACTIVATED

13,064 REACT STORES 6,430 REACT NDPS’ (+18.5% ahead of target)

150,000 TWITTER IMPRESSIONS 4,503 TLS NDP’S (41% strike rate vs target of 20%)

Aug

May 2017

On average

1.8 EXTRA copies sold per day once

Perfect Shop gained

FULL STORY INSIDE – THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE NEWS UK FIELD TEAM

• 34 Sales Development Executives (SDE’s) • 4 Sales Managers, 1 National Manager and an Account Director • 13,852 Perfect Shops, 9,226 Units, 9,673 Website Signs Ups

https://www.newsretail.co.uk/

News is not like your typical FMCG company, they are in a market that is in year-on-year decline, their customers are less habitual and purchasing with less frequency. Powerforce are an integral long-term partner to News UK and we have been running their field team since 2011, playing a key role in the execution of their strategy to protect print. News are a massive category worth over £1.8bn per year in RSV with 5.3m transactions a day. News brands are read by 1 in 2 adults everyday in the UK. They are the number 2 shopping mission in convenience, their readers visit stores on average 4.23 times per week and the average basket spend per week is £22.76. They have an audience bigger than the X factor and offers a brand new experience every day. The field sales team objective was Perfect Shop – making a difference in every call. ‘My Perfect Shop’ program, was designed by Powerforce to drive total category sales and in turn increase basket spend for retailers. Our team bring the benefits of protecting space in store, which means we have the right space-to-sales. We increase visibility which means at every point of purchase we are driving extra copies. We are the only publisher building direct relationships and engagement with retailers and have our News Retailer plus website to support our retailers in a category approach (link to website above). The field team delivered 38% ahead of their target for Perfect Shop, but the landscape was changing and the field team needed to adapt and flex their style from Sept 2017 to transform into the new world. This would consist of brand campaigns, React, The Times subscriptions and a flexible call file changing every 6 weeks to match the business needs.

2016 FMBE GOLD WINNER FOR TEAM OF THE YEAR

WHO WE WERE IN MAY 2017

Aug

Sept 2017

83% OF PEOPLE RATED THE CONFERENCE BRILLIANT!

• We needed to upskill & educate our field team to be ready for the new world!

• It is our people that were going to make this happen and with the right people creates the right culture and an award winning team.

We took the entire team to MK Dons for a conference, team-building activity at the Snozone

and then a night filled with superheroes to link with the transformation theme. We celebrated the last 12 months results, 4 individuals were individually recognised for outstanding performance and also announced the winner of the SDE of the year award.

The conference was about ensuring as an organisation we were in the best place possible to respond to the changing needs of our consumers and the market. We needed to evolve and adapt, being ready for the change ensuring we generated the maximum return for News In every call. The conference included: the new role of the SDE, the team vision & mission and how everyone was part of that. Including a Q+A session with our customer to ensure everyone was 100% clear on the strategy.

Our key objective for the year ahead was to become the first choice to connect brands with audiences through brilliant activation. The team were inspired by the exciting range of ways we were going to achieve this – such as: React partnerships, brand campaigns, London calling project, flexible and dynamic call file, the right sales tools & training and the team being agile to change.

“BEST CONFERENCE IN THE HISTORY OF NEWS” FIELD TEAM QUOTE

PROJECT TRANSFORMATION

2000 Units Commercialised to drive revenue

with bottom 2 shelves

• Inspiring & empowering the team through World Class people Development

• Supported the transformation of the team with a People Development program

hand-in-hand with regular Coaching at 121’s, PDP’s and field

accompaniments.

We launched the on-line accomp form which gives the RFM’s a report by SDE of high and low performers – clearly identifying where more coaching is needed. We launched a skills gap matrix which summarises each SDE’s journey and benchmarks the entire national team. At our team meetings every 6 weeks we delivered training programs that met the needs of the team. Most recently we have had Questioning; Commercial Maths and Objection Handling for the React activity on Pringles. We use our on-line training tool for bitesize learning, this is not only cost effective but means we can tailor modules to meet any skill gaps and track against performance to drive continuous improvement. The entire team has been through the 2 day industry-leading sales training programme ‘Sales Gears’ and they use these principles every day to effectively drive sales at retail. New starters go on this within their first 3 months. The Regional Field Management team were not forgotten and also this training, plus additional development around negotiation, coaching, performance management and development.

• We needed to upskill & educate our field team to be ready for the new world!

• It is our people that were going to make this happen and with the right people breathes the right culture and an award winning team.

We took the entire team to MK Dons for a conference, team-building activity at the Snozone

and then a night filled with superheroes to link with the transformation theme. We celebrated the last 12 months results, 4 individuals were individually recognised for outstanding performance and also announced the winner of the SDE of the year award.

The conference was about ensuring as an organisation we were in the best place possible to respond to the changing needs of our consumers and the market. We needed to evolve and adapt, being ready for the change ensuring we generated the maximum return for News In every call. The conference included: the new role of the SDE, the team vision & mission and how everyone was part of that. Including a Q+A session with our customer to ensure everyone was 100% clear on the strategy.

Our key objective for the year ahead was to become the first choice to connect brands with audiences through brilliant activation. The team were inspired by the exciting range of ways we were going to achieve this – such as: React partnerships, brand campaigns, London calling project, flexible and dynamic call file, the right sales tools & training and the team being agile to change.

Aug

May 2017

100% More effective and efficient

INNOVATION TURNED OUR BRAND EXECUTIVES INTO BRAND AMBASSADORS

“IPRESENT IS A GREAT TOOL FOR BOTH NEW STARTERS AND EXPERIENCED SDE’S. EVERYTHING IS AT YOUR FINGER TIPS AND IS PARTICULARLY USEFUL WHEN SPEAKING TO RETAILERS BECAUSE IT HAS

ALL THE VISUALS NEEDED TO GET YOUR STORY ACROSS.” Mark Matier, Northern Ireland SDE

.

Interactive toolkit (ipresent) – category information, brand knowledge, killer facts,

training, retail guide, React FAB’s, POR calculator, selling decks for campaigns.

Sales data – presenting to the retailer their store sales for the Sun & The Times, gives

us credibility & engagement with decision makers

Power Bi – real time data, national performance, team performance and SDE

performance.

• New! Interactive tool kit to make calls more effective for News UK and retailers

• New! Key insight now all in one place and always up-to-date

• New! Power BI: Online reporting dashboard to track data and react effectively to poor performers

• Sales data for every visit, a powerful tool to use with retailers

SALES TOOLS TO DELIVER SUCCESS

Aug

May 2017

42% Above Target For Pringles React project after objection handling

training

• Inspiring & empowering the team through World Class people Development

• Supported the transformation of the team with a People Development program

hand-in-hand with regular Coaching at 121’s, PDP’s and field

accompaniments.

We launched the on-line accomp form which gives the RFM’s a report by SDE of high and low performers – clearly identifying where more coaching is needed. We launched a skills gap matrix which summarises each SDE’s journey and benchmarks the entire national team. At our team meetings every 6 weeks we delivered training programs that met the needs of the team. Most recently we have had; Questioning, Commercial Maths and Objection Handling for the React activity on Pringles. We use our on-line training tool for bitesize learning, this is not only cost effective but means we can tailor modules to meet any skill gaps and track against performance to drive continuous improvement. The entire team has been through the 2 day industry-leading sales training programme ‘Sales Gears’ and they use these principles every day to effectively drive sales at retail. New starters go on this within their first 3 months. The Regional Field Management team were not forgotten with also this training, plus additional development around negotiation, coaching, performance management and development.

INCREASE Y.O.Y. ON OUR TRAINING RESULTS

HUGE INVESTMENT IN OUR PEOPLE

AN SDE FOLLOWING GEARS TRAINING INCREASED THEIR KPI PERFORMANCE BY 20%

Aug

Sept 2017

Team Structure 28 SDE’s 3 RFM’s 1 NFM 1 AD

• Strategy for the call file was simple – flexibility every 6 weeks to divert the team where the business required for campaigns or supporting national account initiatives

• Driving extra revenue for News in high value stores • Every 6 weeks we re mapped stores and journey plans to ensure

maximum efficiency of service We wanted to have the optimum balance between value and the number of stores. The

optimum point for The Sun is 66% value, from 11k stores and The Times 70% value from 5.6k stores. Our stores are segmented by Volume, Volatility and then these are ranked to give us composite rankings which means we know our high value stores. We then overlapped the high value Sun & Times stores to show our highest value stores. With these regular on-going updates to the call file it allows us to quickly create new and relevant questions for the SDEs to ask of retailers to constantly gather key insight to further drive new campaigns. This is particularly useful to News UK to help drive business with partner brands (such as Pringles) who don’t have their own field sales team.

9000 STORES IN MAY 2017 VS 11000 STORES IN MAY 2018

NEW DYNAMIC CALL FILE

CALLS MORE EFFECTIVE WITH 70.9% OF DM’S SEEN, INCREASE OF 15% YOY

Aug

June 2017

• Over the last 12 months the field team have been instrumental in the activation of brand campaigns.

• Each campaign is launched at team meetings to drive excitement and engagement and to add the Wow factor!

We use our specially created in-house shop for training and development. This provides a safe environment for SDEs to share best practice and ensure a high strike rate when speaking to decision makers. An example of a campaign is the launch of Sun Savers on 17th June 2017 which is a loyalty scheme and our objective was to educate our retailers to create as much noise, excitement and awareness during the three days leading up to the launch. Our aims were to put our customers first, create retailer interaction and generate in-store theatre. “A fantastic result by all, the team should be very proud in what they've achieved so far, an amazing effort. I can't see anything else on Twitter apart from Sun Savers posts!” Neil Spencer – Director of Retail Sales News UK “It’s brilliant work, well done to you and team.” David Robinson – Managing Director, The Sun & The Sun on Sunday achieved so far, an amazing effort. I can't see anything else on Twitter apart from Sun Savers posts.”

Neil Spencer – Director of Retail Sales News UK “It’s brilliant work, well done to you and team.” David Robinson – Managing Director, The Sun & The Sun on Sunday hows you the breadth and how we are trying to protect print, how we are making news relevant and how we bringing your brand to life in a positive way in store to generates extra copies,

4,958 RE-TWEETS, 6,500 LIKES IN 3 DAYS

BRAND CAMPAIGNS

4000 RETAILERS VISITED, 100,000 ITEMS OF POS SITED IN 3 DAYS

Aug

April 2018

36.9% Strike Rate

V’s target of 20%

• 2 new roles created in Central London • Vision: To ensure a New UK title in every basket • Mission: Grow sustainable sales for retail by challenging , educating,

informing & motivating retail across all touch points. Using our knowledge, tenacity, solutions and brand power to achieve

There are 5,262 retailers within the M25, representing 100m copy sales of The Sun and The Times. On our current call file we only called on 1,637 of these stores due to the cost to serve. This was a huge opportunity that was being missed with the potential to gain new distribution for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and the Times Literary Supplement (TLS).

e trying to protect print, how we are making news relevant and how we bringing your brand to life in a positive way in store to generates extra copies,

3,770 NEW DISTRIBUTION POINTS IN 12 MONTHS

NEWS UK CONQUERS LONDON

4,607 CALLS #newsuklondoncalling

Aug

July 2017

37% Sales Uplift On average for products sited

on our syndication units

React (retail activation) launched in July 2017, an innovative approach to help clients connect their product to potential customers and retailers. To increase distribution and drive incremental sales, without incurring additional costs. Since it’s launch we have had 9 React projects (including Kellogg's, Danone, Britvic, Volvic to name a few). Our team are able to carry product and supply direct to retailers for these activations – meaning that there is no delay and the product is on shelf immediately. They sell the feature & benefits of different products in a 4 week window, overcoming objections and negotiating with retailers. To ensure success we have had to upskill our team through training, recruiting candidates who are adaptable to change and ensuring we clearly brief our team so they understand the products they are selling. e trying to protect print, how we are making news relevant and how we bringing your brand to life in a positive way in store to generates extra copies,

6,430 NEW DISTRIBUTION POINTS

REACT – DRIVING ADDITIONAL REVENUE

• News UK first choice to connect brands with audiences through brilliant activation.

• An exclusive way for News UK advertisers to bring their above-the-line campaigns to life in store.

9 REACT CAMPAIGNS SINCE JULY 2017 ACROSS 13,064 CALLS

Aug

May 2018

Health & Wellbeing A water bottle given to each

person in March, to encourage drinking water and saving

environment

• We have a multi-channel approach to communicating with our teams, including

traditional 6-weekly meetings through to the latest social media techniques – creating an on-going 2-way conversation.

e trying to protect print, how we are making news relevant and how we bringing your brand to life in a positive way in store to generates extra copies,

96% OF EMPLOYEES SAY THEIR LINE MANAGER ALWAYS COMMUNICATES IMPORTANT MESSAGES AND KEEPS THEM INFORMED

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION LEADS TO INCREASED

PEFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY

1 MANAGEMENT SKYPE MEETING SAVES 471 MILES AND 664 AIR MILES

Aug

May 2018

• Our team are regularly rewarded with incentives, monthly FAB awards, Snap incentives, annual awards and 20% bonus based on performance.

• The positive results of engagement activity are seen in our outstanding People Survey results.

• Our team are sent gifts in the post for special dates – Valentines, Easter etc. • Our team have weekly communication on their performance from their manager

and nationally their SDE rankings.

Even with such great results we are always looking for ways to improve and following feedback we re-branded the Dream Team incentive that was launched in 2016. The SDEs told us they would like a team element added and less winners but more prize money. We listened, updated the scheme and now everyone is engaged with the programme. “I like the dream team because of the friendly banter and competition brings our team together.” Dave McKenzie. “I think the dream team is a great incentive as it rewards us individually and as a team. There are loads of ways you can earn points which means there’s everything to play for. Splitting it over quarters keeps the competition exciting.” Molly Thompson. ““ It’s easy and fun, a good tool to plan your objectives.” Steve Baker It’s easy and fun, a good tool to plan your objectives.” Steve Baker

93% OF OUR PEOPLE SAID EVERYONE HAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET RECOGNITION

ENGAGEMENT INCREASED

89% OF OUR TEAM SAY WE CARE ABOUT ONE ANOTHER HERE

96% of our people say management shows

appreciation for good work and effort

Aug

May 2018

e trying to protect print, how we are making news relevant and how we bringing your brand to life in a positive way in store to generates extra copies,

93% OUR PEOPLE SAY

96% OF OUR TEAM BELIEVE THEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR CUSTOMERS

WHAT DO OUR TEAM SAY?

Anonymous survey completed yearly

93% OF OUR PEOPLE SAY MANAGEMENT IS APPROACHABLE AND EASY TO TALK TO

100% of our people say they

are treated fairly regardless of their race or ethnic origin

93% OF OUR PEOPLE SAID MANAGEMENT GENUINELY SEEKS AND RESPONDS TO SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS

88.5% OF OUR PEOPLE SAY THEY RECEIVED THE

TRAINING THEY NEED TO DO THEIR JOB PROPERLY

93% OF OUR PEOPLE, WHEN THEY LOOK AT WHAT THEY ACCOMPLISH FEEL A SENSE

OF PRIDE

89% OF OUR PEOPLE SAY THEY ARE WILLING TO GO

THE EXTRA MILE TO GET THE JOB DONE