Screen free for the magazines
Genre marketing US magazines are on the upswing. They are letting TV producers and media people know this with an impressive campaign.
Genre marketing US magazines are on the upswing. They are letting TV producers and media people know this with an impressive campaign.
Every year in early summer, America's media elite gather in New York for the so-called "Upfronts" to take a look at the upcoming fall television season. For around ten days, cinematic and culinary delicacies as well as all the tangible TV stars are brought in to persuade agency representatives and advertisers to sell as much TV advertising time as possible in advance. But this year, media professionals waiting to get in at venues like Madison Square Garden were treated to a guerrilla campaign. The industry association Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) had hired actors to draw attention to their industry with slogans such as "We are desperate for our magazines" or "Magazines offer ER: Engaged Reach", printed on brightly colored T-shirts.
Increase in revenue
The American magazine industry is doing well compared to the
US newspaper publishers are not doing too badly. Although it suffered a few setbacks after the boom years of the internet, it has seen a steady increase in advertising revenue since 2001, which accounts for 54% of turnover. However, the attractiveness of magazines for advertisers has been eclipsed for years by the mass medium of television, where many companies invest the most dollars. And this is exactly what the MPA wants to change with a 40 million advertising campaign called "Read On" (on the Internet at www.magazine.org/readon), which will run for three years.
The magazine industry is being aided in its efforts to shift attention away from television by new technologies, such as the hard disk recorder, which allows consumers to skip commercials on TV. "Consumers only want advertising by invitation," says Jack Kliger, President of MPA member Hachette Filipacchi. Unlike television, Kliger says, with magazines consumers retain control over what they want to see. And: magazine readers like advertising, according to a study by the consulting firm Starcom Mediavest. Women were asked to tear out the ten pages of a magazine that were most important to them. A third of these were advertisements.
Another element that magazine publishers want to use to attract advertisers in the future is "engagement": how much a magazine or a story in it captivates readers. According to a study by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, most readers think of positive things when asked about their impressions of magazines. Most agreed with the statement "I get something for my money" or "it makes me smarter". It's this kind of "engagement" that advertisers want, says Renetta McCann, CEO of media research firm Mediacom. "Stop raving to us about how many readers you have," she said in a speech to MPA members. "In future, we need to know whether a qualitative connection has been made with the consumer. That is the metric of the future."
Gerti Schön
Every year in early summer, America's media elite gather in New York for the so-called "Upfronts" to take a look at the upcoming fall television season. For around ten days, cinematic and culinary delicacies as well as all the tangible TV stars are brought in to persuade agency representatives and advertisers to sell as much TV advertising time as possible in advance. But this year, media professionals waiting to get in at venues like Madison Square Garden were treated to a guerrilla campaign. The industry association Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) had hired actors to draw attention to their industry with slogans such as "We are desperate for our magazines" or "Magazines offer ER: Engaged Reach", printed on brightly colored T-shirts.
Increase in revenue
The American magazine industry is doing well compared to the
US newspaper publishers are not doing too badly. Although it suffered a few setbacks after the boom years of the internet, it has seen a steady increase in advertising revenue since 2001, which accounts for 54% of turnover. However, the attractiveness of magazines for advertisers has been eclipsed for years by the mass medium of television, where many companies invest the most dollars. And this is exactly what the MPA wants to change with a 40 million advertising campaign called "Read On" (on the Internet at www.magazine.org/readon), which will run for three years.
The magazine industry is being aided in its efforts to shift attention away from television by new technologies, such as the hard disk recorder, which allows consumers to skip commercials on TV. "Consumers only want advertising by invitation," says Jack Kliger, President of MPA member Hachette Filipacchi. Unlike television, Kliger says, with magazines consumers retain control over what they want to see. And: magazine readers like advertising, according to a study by the consulting firm Starcom Mediavest. Women were asked to tear out the ten pages of a magazine that were most important to them. A third of these were advertisements.
Another element that magazine publishers want to use to attract advertisers in the future is "engagement": how much a magazine or a story in it captivates readers. According to a study by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, most readers think of positive things when asked about their impressions of magazines. Most agreed with the statement "I get something for my money" or "it makes me smarter". It's this kind of "engagement" that advertisers want, says Renetta McCann, CEO of media research firm Mediacom. "Stop raving to us about how many readers you have," she said in a speech to MPA members. "In future, we need to know whether a qualitative connection has been made with the consumer. That is the metric of the future."
Gerti Schön
