When advertising becomes superfluous
Magazine Marketing: Does a successful product need advertising? Only to a limited extent, advises the Guye Benker agency to *Die Weltwoche*—and is developing a low-key campaign featuring excerpts for the high-profile magazine.
Magazine marketing Does a successful product need advertising? Only to a limited extent, advises agency Guye Benker of Weltwoche - and develops a low-profile appearance with reading samples for the high-profile magazine. The Hemingway epigone from Zurich's Jean Frey House was denied access to the heart of the Gulf War - like Karl May, the "war correspondent" only made it as far as wild Kurdistan. On the other hand, Roger Köppel has done extremely well on the domestic media front in his first year as editor-in-chief of Weltwoche. According to the latest Wemf figures (see also page 21), the intellectual pragmatist has more than exceeded his targets.
With a 7.2 percent increase in circulation to almost 9,100 copies, Weltwoche has overtaken Facts and at the same time proved all skeptics wrong who predicted the magazine concept would fail. It may be argued that Köppel only saved the struggling weekly with unorthodox methods and offensive liberal morals. The fact that he and his team correctly interpreted the signs of the times by spicing up the understatement of the opinion-forming institution with subtle glamour and a polarizing, lateral agenda and turning it into a trendy brand is resented by many heirs of 1968.
The fact remains: since the relaunch in magazine format last May, the Weltwoche team has succeeded in increasing its general reach by more than a third and in the 14 to 34-year-old segment by 80 percent. Publishing director Uli Rubner is not only pleased about the rejuvenation and expansion of the readership; the reach among employees with management functions grew by 16.3 percent and among top managers by 8.3 percent. She also clarifies: "What others are now catching up on by streamlining their circulation, Weltwoche anticipated a good two years ago. That is why we are now growing on a healthy basis. The relaunch was the catalyst to make people realize more quickly that Weltwoche has embarked on a new and independent path in terms of content and structure."
Rubner does not want to say how profitable this path actually is or whether the turnaround will be achieved this year as planned. "We ended last year better than budgeted and are ahead of plan in the reader market this year, while we were right on track in the advertising market until February. In March, however, we fell short of the advertising budget for the first time."
Its success is also reflected in the negative echo that Weltwoche's uncompromising style has received in various media. Peer Teuwsen, deputy editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger magazine and long-time colleague of Roger Köppel, interprets the criticism as a sign of the weakness of Weltwoche's competitors. But not all readers are currently taking part in the demanding high-wire act. The call by an SP spokeswoman to boycott "war-mongering media such as Weltwoche and NZZ" had consequences. "We had around 100 explicit cancellations in connection with our stance on the Iraq war," confirms Rubner. "But the fact that we continue to grow shows me that many people want a paper that also takes unpopular positions and asks uncomfortable questions."
Luise Diem, Managing Director of the media agency OMD Zürich See, sees this as the reason for the success: "With the new Weltwoche, a serious title finally meets the needs of a younger, discerning target group that has hardly been served to date." Teuwsen praises the "packaging": "Its layout is brilliant and it has a very good visual language." For Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief of Media Trend Journal, this makes it a weekly magazine "that requires attentive reading. You actually still have to 'read' Weltwoche to have read it". On the other hand, Teuwsen fears that Weltwoche is "making itself predictable with its 'columnitis' and the ideologization of certain content".
This is likely to hit the makers of the paper hardest, as they want to enhance the core of their brand - breadth and openness at a high level - in a surprising way every week to keep readers interested. For the advertisers of the in-house agency Christoph Guye and CD André Benker, Weltwoche has certainly fulfilled these conditions. So good, "that the best advertising for Weltwoche is Weltwoche itself," says Guye, explaining the basic idea behind the new campaign: "The Product is the Hero.
Advertising reduced to absurdity "Product communication must also be constantly new and surprising," says Guye, looking back on three appearances in the first year of the collaboration. The copy campaign that has just started demonstrates nothing other than an update of the basic promise to come up with exciting articles every week.
Advertisements consistently refer to the editorial articles, for example on the last page: "You have just read 72 pages of good advertising for Weltwoche." Half-page or full-page reading samples are intended to draw the attention of competitors' readers to Weltwoche in a similarly unagitated way. As a novelty in press advertising, tear-off blocks are used in streetcars and buses. The take-away reading samples are taken from the current issue. In cinemas, where Weltwoche is targeting readers for the first time, the typo-spot takes the campaign completely ad absurdum: "The best advertising for Weltwoche is the current issue of Weltwoche." Artistic pause. "Then this is probably not such good advertising for Weltwoche." Q.e.d.
Weltwoche is the best advertising medium on its own behalf.
Luca Aloisi
With a 7.2 percent increase in circulation to almost 9,100 copies, Weltwoche has overtaken Facts and at the same time proved all skeptics wrong who predicted the magazine concept would fail. It may be argued that Köppel only saved the struggling weekly with unorthodox methods and offensive liberal morals. The fact that he and his team correctly interpreted the signs of the times by spicing up the understatement of the opinion-forming institution with subtle glamour and a polarizing, lateral agenda and turning it into a trendy brand is resented by many heirs of 1968.
The fact remains: since the relaunch in magazine format last May, the Weltwoche team has succeeded in increasing its general reach by more than a third and in the 14 to 34-year-old segment by 80 percent. Publishing director Uli Rubner is not only pleased about the rejuvenation and expansion of the readership; the reach among employees with management functions grew by 16.3 percent and among top managers by 8.3 percent. She also clarifies: "What others are now catching up on by streamlining their circulation, Weltwoche anticipated a good two years ago. That is why we are now growing on a healthy basis. The relaunch was the catalyst to make people realize more quickly that Weltwoche has embarked on a new and independent path in terms of content and structure."
Rubner does not want to say how profitable this path actually is or whether the turnaround will be achieved this year as planned. "We ended last year better than budgeted and are ahead of plan in the reader market this year, while we were right on track in the advertising market until February. In March, however, we fell short of the advertising budget for the first time."
Its success is also reflected in the negative echo that Weltwoche's uncompromising style has received in various media. Peer Teuwsen, deputy editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger magazine and long-time colleague of Roger Köppel, interprets the criticism as a sign of the weakness of Weltwoche's competitors. But not all readers are currently taking part in the demanding high-wire act. The call by an SP spokeswoman to boycott "war-mongering media such as Weltwoche and NZZ" had consequences. "We had around 100 explicit cancellations in connection with our stance on the Iraq war," confirms Rubner. "But the fact that we continue to grow shows me that many people want a paper that also takes unpopular positions and asks uncomfortable questions."
Luise Diem, Managing Director of the media agency OMD Zürich See, sees this as the reason for the success: "With the new Weltwoche, a serious title finally meets the needs of a younger, discerning target group that has hardly been served to date." Teuwsen praises the "packaging": "Its layout is brilliant and it has a very good visual language." For Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief of Media Trend Journal, this makes it a weekly magazine "that requires attentive reading. You actually still have to 'read' Weltwoche to have read it". On the other hand, Teuwsen fears that Weltwoche is "making itself predictable with its 'columnitis' and the ideologization of certain content".
This is likely to hit the makers of the paper hardest, as they want to enhance the core of their brand - breadth and openness at a high level - in a surprising way every week to keep readers interested. For the advertisers of the in-house agency Christoph Guye and CD André Benker, Weltwoche has certainly fulfilled these conditions. So good, "that the best advertising for Weltwoche is Weltwoche itself," says Guye, explaining the basic idea behind the new campaign: "The Product is the Hero.
Advertising reduced to absurdity "Product communication must also be constantly new and surprising," says Guye, looking back on three appearances in the first year of the collaboration. The copy campaign that has just started demonstrates nothing other than an update of the basic promise to come up with exciting articles every week.
Advertisements consistently refer to the editorial articles, for example on the last page: "You have just read 72 pages of good advertising for Weltwoche." Half-page or full-page reading samples are intended to draw the attention of competitors' readers to Weltwoche in a similarly unagitated way. As a novelty in press advertising, tear-off blocks are used in streetcars and buses. The take-away reading samples are taken from the current issue. In cinemas, where Weltwoche is targeting readers for the first time, the typo-spot takes the campaign completely ad absurdum: "The best advertising for Weltwoche is the current issue of Weltwoche." Artistic pause. "Then this is probably not such good advertising for Weltwoche." Q.e.d.
Weltwoche is the best advertising medium on its own behalf.
Luca Aloisi
