An unusual cover
Did anyone notice anything out of the ordinary on the cover of Brandweek for the week of October 3? How about the fact that the entire cover page was an ad! It certainly is an interesting choice for a magazine to forgoe promoting its own articles in the name of selling very prime ad space to a client. Granted, Brandweek isn't often seen on the shelves, at least not in grocery and drugstores, perhaps the larger bookstores, so much of its readership would come from subscribers. Still, is this a wise move? It's great for TVland to get such exposure for it's Mr. T series. But subscribers still need to be reminded to actually read the magazine. Without featuring its articles on the front page, wouldn't more subscribers be inclined to let the magazine sit on their coffee table? I know I've barely touched this week's issue... I've let Mr. T stare at me while I've been at my computer, but he hardly motivates me to read one interesting story or another. Do you think we'll see more of these front-cover, full-page magazine ads in the future? For whom would it be successful and for whom wouldn't it?
~Mandy Murphy
posted by Brand007 @ 9:43 AM
2 Comments:
I think that it is interesting that you should point out the ad on the cover. I personally think it is more effective for brandweek to advertise it's own feature articles rather than post an ad for TV land. I do not know how effective TV land's marketing dollars were spent either on an ad that will not reach that many individuals, unless, which I doubt, they conducted research that indicated that their target market reads brandweek.
Although I found it strange that an advertisement was on the cover of Brandweek, having covers as advertisements are not very unusual, especially for industry magazines. The readers of Brandweek are generally people who have a particular interest in brands. Generally, because a person has already put in the money to subscribe for this magazine, they will probably skim, if not read through it.
If you've ever read Billboard magazine, you'll see that they generally have a advertisement on it's cover every week. Most of their readership also comes from subscribers as it is not often seen at grocery stores and drugstores.
In July, when Warner Music (I believe) was trying to sell an Austrailian singer named Katie Metia, half of the billboard magazine consisted of ads congratulating her for crossing over to the US industry. Because of these ads, I was really interested in finding out more about this singer, what she sang, what she sounded like.
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