Magazines Ireland continued its successful campaign, ‘The Power of Magazine Brands’ with a morning presentation at the AAI Toolkit Seminar at Core Media.
Five of our members spoke about the unique power of magazine brands in advertising campaigns.
Magazines have the scope to provide a multi-platform, targeted marketing to an engaged audience. Magazines have a loyal and trusting readership and they are able to harness this in their creative campaigns both in print and online.
Magazines also have a variety of creative resources at their fingertips; from designers to marketers, to excellent writing and marketing talent, a magazine provides a value-laden opportunity for advertisers.
Rachel Supple of Harmonia was the first of our members to address the group. She spoke of the importance of being a great storyteller. Magazine journalists must be ‘communication chameleons’ and be able to write for all audiences, from teenagers to over sixties, juggling both language and tone.
U Magazine’s collaboration with SEAT and Mango was a successful marketing and advertising strategy targeting 25-35 year old women interested in fashion. They used influencers and attractive advertorials to create a buzz around SEAT cars, harnessing the in-house talent to create a strong, on-brand campaign.
Stephen Wynne-Jones of Checkout magazine spoke of how brands can utilise trade media strategically, citing Checkout’s innovative M&M’s campaign which saw Ms. Green M&M step in as guest editor.
Steve showed how trade magazines are an effective and direct form of marketing.
Aideen O’Brien of Xposé shared tips on building and managing communities.
She shared Xposé’s campaign with Beverly Hills Formula teeth whitener, explaining how they used a variety of techniques to raise brand awareness and communicate the brand’s messages. This was achieved by sponsorship of their social pages, product placement and advertorials. It led to increased sales and awareness, showing that even small brands can achieve big results through seamless integration.
Karen Hesse of 256 Media discussed how global brands are using content marketing and key strategies to engage their audiences. Today’s companies are in the not only in their own business, but also the business of publishing.
From Coca-Cola to Linkedin, brands are turning to publishing to amplify their brands. Karen reminded us that we are not the centre of our customer’s universe so a multi-platform brand is important.
Melanie Morris of IMAGE Publications discussed how to successfully amplify a creative campaign across print, digital, social and video.
Image’s Vichy campaign was cited as an example of a multi-platform approach; with real readers and a member of the Image team testing the product, partnered with an on-brand video of the results, and a reader event, which has become an essential part of the marketing mix.
Attendees left the event with a better understanding of the power of magazine brands, and with inspiration for their next campaigns.
Among those in attendance were BWG, IDL Pernod Ricard, DAA, Diageo, AIB, Mediavest and Permanent TSB.
Many thanks to AAI for hosting us at this event.
