The recipe is called Wildeisen
Magazines: The magazine *Kochen* has seen remarkable growth. One reason for this is a clever multichannel marketing strategy.
Magazines Cooking magazine is enjoying astonishing growth. Ueli Eckstein, Head of Print Media at AZ Medien, can rub his hands over a warming kitchen fire: Kochen magazine, which he helped launch in March 2002 as project manager and publishing director ad interim, has developed magnificently - and what's more: after just over a year, the title has already broken even. In its first nine issues up to December 2002, Kochen contained 80 pages of advertisements, in the first four issues of this year it was 44 pages. And based on the bookings, it is already clear that Kochen will do better in 2003 than Chuchi (published by Meyers), which was discontinued last year, in its best year. "The advertisements are developing well, but we had expected more," says Eckstein dryly, adding that there are many factors that have led to the rapid success of the young title. The name Annemarie Wildeisen undoubtedly plays an important role. The editor-in-chief moved with her entire team from Chuchi to AZ Medien at the beginning of 2002 - she had previously also published almost a dozen cookbooks with Meyer. Equally important is the fact that Meyers pulled the plug in May 2002 and sold Chuchi to AZ Medien. The latter quickly discontinued the unwelcome competition, but took over the Swiss-wide subscription base. Nevertheless, Hanspeter Eggenberger's editorial company Duktus had put the staid Chuchi magazine on the right track in just a few months on Meyers' behalf.
The takeover coup catapulted the print run of Kochen from 40000 to 90000 copies without any major advertising effort. According to a Wemf interim certification, the title now has a circulation of 75,265 copies, 25,000 more than would have been enough to break even according to the original business plan.
Wildeisen, Wildeisen, WildeisenBut a clever marketing strategy also contributes to its success: It goes without saying that AZ Medien pushes its youngest child on all in-house media channels, but it hardly brings the title any new subscribers outside of the Rüeblikanton. Mailings, a hotline for questions about cooking and the homepage www.wildeisen .ch are more suitable for this. In fact, the website not only generates 180000 page impressions per month, but also an above-average number of trial subscriptions. There were 800 from January to May 2003; comparable homepages generate at best 50 to 200 per year. And the conversion rate is 50 percent. "Don't ask me why that is," says Eckstein himself in amazement.
For the past four months, Kochen has also been trying to gain a foothold in Zurich, Bern and Basel. To this end, the company entered into a partnership with 20 Minuten, so that a "Wildeisernes" recipe now appears in the commuter newspaper on Fridays. Cooking was also featured in the free newspaper for three weeks via an advertising campaign, while at the same time increasing its newsstand circulation by 30 percent. "Within 14 days, we gained 4000 trial subscriptions from predominantly young people. You can really reach this target audience with 20 Minuten," praises Eckein - probably not without a sideways glance at the hefty print job that AZ Medien has been carrying out for the commuter paper for some time.
There is also Wildeisen's three-minute TV cooking program, which is broadcast weekly on Tele M1 and Tele Tell. She is one of the rating leaders there and thus also promotes cooking in Central Switzerland. "We are also in negotiations with two other TV stations," says Eckstein.
Clear layout, clear recipes - and TV promo: Annemarie Wildeisen's cooking spices up Swiss kitchens.
The takeover coup catapulted the print run of Kochen from 40000 to 90000 copies without any major advertising effort. According to a Wemf interim certification, the title now has a circulation of 75,265 copies, 25,000 more than would have been enough to break even according to the original business plan.
Wildeisen, Wildeisen, WildeisenBut a clever marketing strategy also contributes to its success: It goes without saying that AZ Medien pushes its youngest child on all in-house media channels, but it hardly brings the title any new subscribers outside of the Rüeblikanton. Mailings, a hotline for questions about cooking and the homepage www.wildeisen .ch are more suitable for this. In fact, the website not only generates 180000 page impressions per month, but also an above-average number of trial subscriptions. There were 800 from January to May 2003; comparable homepages generate at best 50 to 200 per year. And the conversion rate is 50 percent. "Don't ask me why that is," says Eckstein himself in amazement.
For the past four months, Kochen has also been trying to gain a foothold in Zurich, Bern and Basel. To this end, the company entered into a partnership with 20 Minuten, so that a "Wildeisernes" recipe now appears in the commuter newspaper on Fridays. Cooking was also featured in the free newspaper for three weeks via an advertising campaign, while at the same time increasing its newsstand circulation by 30 percent. "Within 14 days, we gained 4000 trial subscriptions from predominantly young people. You can really reach this target audience with 20 Minuten," praises Eckein - probably not without a sideways glance at the hefty print job that AZ Medien has been carrying out for the commuter paper for some time.
There is also Wildeisen's three-minute TV cooking program, which is broadcast weekly on Tele M1 and Tele Tell. She is one of the rating leaders there and thus also promotes cooking in Central Switzerland. "We are also in negotiations with two other TV stations," says Eckstein.
Clear layout, clear recipes - and TV promo: Annemarie Wildeisen's cooking spices up Swiss kitchens.
Markus Knöpfli
