The leaders of five major magazine companies — Charles H. Townsend, Conde Nast; Cathie Black, Hearst Magazines; Jack Griffin, Meredith Corporation; Ann Moore, Time Inc.; and Jann Wenner, Wenner Media — jointly announced the launch of one of the largest print ad campaigns ever created to promote the vitality of magazines as a medium. The announcement was made at the opening day of the 2010 4A’s Leadership/Media Conference in San Francisco.
Via Y&R NY, the “Magazines, The Power of Print” campaign will roll out in the May issues (for weeklies, the issues on sale the week of 4/5) of nearly 100 titles and run for seven months in magazines and Web sites from the five publishers, as well as Active Interest Media, American Express Publishing, Bonnier Corporation, Emmis Publications, ESPN, National Geographic, New York Magazine, and third-party sites in the food, shelter, sports, entertainment, fashion and news categories, reaching a combined 112 million readers per month. A complementary digital component will support the print campaign beginning this spring.
With the support of the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), the campaign targets advertisers, shareholders and industry influencers, and seeks to reshape the broader conversation about magazines, challenge misperceptions about the medium’s relevancy and longevity, and reinforce magazines’ important cultural role.
To achieve maximum impact, the ads will debut as color spreads, prominently placed in May issues of the publishers’ top titles with headlines such as, “We Surf the Internet. We Swim in Magazines.” And “Will the Internet Kill Magazines? Did Instant Coffee Kill Coffee?” These will be accompanied by iconic images lifted from the pages of America’s best-known magazines. A second phase, which will start appearing in June issues, will embed multiple cover images from widely recognized publications into the ad’s text to convey key phrases.
A special “Magazines” logo will debut with the campaign. Y&R NY created the image by combining the distinctive typographies of multiple magazine logos: “M” from Time, “A” from Vanity Fair, “G” from Rolling Stone, “A” from Entertainment Weekly, “Z” from Harper’s Bazaar, “I” from Marie Claire, “N” from Fortune, and “ES” from Esquire.
Metrics supporting the campaign’s message include:
•Magazine readership has risen 4.3% over the past five years (Source: MRI Fall 2009, Fall 2005 data)
•Average paid subscriptions reached nearly 300 million in 2009 (Source: MPA estimates based on ABC first half 2009 and second half 2009 data)
•Adults 18-34 are avid magazine readers. They read more issues and spend more time per issue than their over-34 counterparts (Source: MRI Fall 2009 data)
•During the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership increased 11% (Source: MRI Fall 2009 data)
•Magazine effectiveness is growing. Ad recall has increased 13% over the past five years. Action-taking–based on readers recalling specific ads–increased by 10%. (Source: Affinity’s VISTA Print Effectiveness Rating Service, 2005-2009)
•Magazines outperform other media in driving positive shifts in purchase consideration/intent. (Source: Dynamic Logic)
