Yaffa Publishing Group (publisher of AdNews), in partnership with ACP, NewsLifeMedia and Pacific Magazines, has launched ‘Magazine Ads’, a campaign to help boost creativity in magazine advertising.
The initiative will be spearheaded by a Facebook page and supported by advertising across a range of the publishers’ magazines, while also promoting the Glossy Awards, run by Yaffa Publishing Group.
It will give the industry as well as consumers the opportunity to voice their opinions on the latest magazine ads. New campaigns will be uploaded to the Facebook page regularly for ‘likes’ from the public. Constructive feedback of any sort will be welcome to give agencies and clients a better understanding of consumers’ needs from advertising.
The campaign has been created by Clemenger BBDO. “Magazines are a medium where people ‘opt in’ in a sense,” said Luke Chess, creative director of Clemenger BBDO Sydney. “Magazine advertising has somehow become less trendy of late but right now there’s a bigger opportunity to get noticed in magazines than ever.”
While he admitted there may be harsh comments posted on some of the work, Chess said agencies and clients can’t “stick their fingers in their ears” if they want to improve their advertisements. “More than half the battle for advertisers and advertising is getting noticed. Even a bad ‘rating’ is better than no rating. The interest is in how people feel magazine advertising is treating them.”
ACP, NewsLifeMedia and Pacific Magazines will be promoting the ‘Magazine Ads’ campaign through advertising in a number of their major titles including Grazia, Sunday Magazine, Cleo, Famous, Top Gear, The Weekend Australian Magazine and more.
“Magazine ads do need to improve in general but they don’t seem to be a priority with creative agencies,” said Louise Barrett, director of sales at ACP. “We are hoping that by promoting the Glossy Awards and the ‘Magazine Ads’ campaign, and driving great creative together with AdNews and the wider industry, we can inspire more great magazine creative.”
Nicole Sheffield, chief executive of NewsLifeMedia, said advertising needs to be continually improved to get readers’ attention.
“We are now in a different age – participatory communication is key,” Sheffield said. “We have more savvy, engaged, vocal and passionate consumers than ever before. Ads are no different – getting someone’s attention and then asking them to be involved is harder than previous years. But I firmly believe magazines have been engaging since the first glossy was created.”
Nick Chan, chief executive of Pacific Magazines, agreed. “We know that a cover price, especially at the newsstand, provides a significant filter to intent and engagement with our medium,” he said. “Despite this, magazine readers respond and engage with great communication within the magazine. We design our editorial pages on the basis that we have to fight for the reader’s attention and this applies to magazine advertising.”
Of the campaign itself, Sheffield said: “My hopes are all those vocal readers and consumers that we hear from all the time share their likes and dislikes and help us recognise what engages and gains their attention.”
The campaign is now live and can be accessed on Facebook.
This article first appeared in the 20 April 2012 edition of
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