The April issue of Sharp hit newsstands today, featuring a unique advertising placement behind a partially transparent, plastic cover. Turning the page reveals an ad hidden behind the cover photo, on what would normally be the paper cover.
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“We haven’t seen an execution like this in magazines before,” says the men’s magazine’s editorial and creative director Michael LaFave. “If magazines are going to compete they need to be creative.”
Representatives for Audi approached Sharp seeking “an impactful execution” for their spring marketing campaign for the S5 Cabriolet model, LaFave says. The ad agency and publisher discussed ideas and eventually decided “the cover would essentially be opaque in some areas and transparent in others and reveal an advertising position behind the opaque portion.”
Sharp locked in the cover design over a month ago and sent a template for the advertiser’s creators to work within.
LaFave expects a positive reaction from the issue and says he hopes it sends a message that Sharp is premium, successful publication that believes in magazines and “can come up with ideas that move magazine advertising forward.”
This isn’t the first time Sharp has been challenged to come up with a creative solution for advertisers. “For us, it’s exciting and it’s part of the business,” he says. “It’s great to work with companies that really believe in magazines and believe that they have the impact that they’re looking for to market today.”
Sharp decided to use 8-point thickness for the plastic, which was an important decision, he says. “We didn’t want it to be flimsy, but it still had to be foldable.”
Actually producing the issue was a challenge, he says. They printed and bound the issue as they normally would, only with an ad being printed on the paper cover. A separate sub-contractor was used to print the plastic page. Both elements were sent to another location for the cover to be glued on, then to another place to be trimmed.
Sharp is published six times per year by Toronto-based Contempo Media, with a distribution of 152,000 across Canada through The Globe and Mail, newsstands, subscriptions and Air Canada’s business-class lounges and special events.
Contempo Media also publishes Time & Style and produces custom publications for Audi and Volkswagen. It also has several online properties and produces multimedia content for Sympatico.ca.
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Jaded says: | |
Wow, Torstar really seems to be on a mission to bankrupt one magazine after another.... |
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Marty Seto says: | |
Make Sure you Enter the COPAs this year. We have a FREE Covid-19 News category that is free to enter... |
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Questions, though:
How would this cover survive mailing to subscribers?
What's the deal with Brosnan on the cover of a Canadian magazine? I would much rather have seen Aliya-Jasmine Sovani on the cover, FHM/Maxim comparisons notwithstanding.
And why the Letter from the Editor BEFORE the contents?
True, full page tipped-on acetate is nothing new, but one on the cover is something that has never been done on a Canadian magazine. I wouldn't want to coordinate something like that considering the logistical nightmare behind it. Despite it falling apart on me already (try reading it rolled up on the subway) it served its purpose of getting me to pick it up amongst the Maxims et al. My only beef is that the white background highlights the close-cropping flaws they did on the image.
For the environmentally conscience, I'm sure they used a plastic ascetate made from recycled materials.
A cover in Sharp goes for around $25,000 (less applicable discounts) and I've priced this execution out at about $40K. To maintain margins you'd have to sell this for $80-100K. Does anyone think that anyone paid that kind of money for this? My point here is not to rattle the cages of folks at Sharp - hey, they made this happen and I applaud that! However, I don't think that this kind of thing is the future of magazines. As Doug Bennett pointed out, the appeal of magazines goes way beyond reading and well into the physical experience of the magazine. Anonymoose even says that his/her copy fell apart under what can only be considered normal use. This sort of thing is fun every once in a while, especially if we can get someone to pay for it, but I object to the notion that this is what READERS are looking for. And I also don't think it's what advertisers want - lately they don't even want to pay for simple ink on paper, let alone this type of creative.
So, how does a new magazine establish itself? Some will buy existing magazines that already reach the people they want to reach and then re-engineer them. Some will start with a blog, then go to a website, to mobile, to a newsletter and maybe eventually to printed products. Some will buy their way onto newsstands and fight THAT fight. In every case, though, it's about building that audience and treasuring it once we have it - only then do WE have something to offer advertisers. And if we've done our jobs "right" our audience will be interested in our advertisers precisely because our audience will care about their products. Why? Because we know who they are and what they are interested in and our advertisers fill their needs/wants.
I have bought products based on what I saw advertised in Wired. And yes, I've seen Toyota advertising in Macleans (and I think in Vanity Fair) but I haven't really bought anything else that I can think of...Lacoste? Ralph Lauren? Louis Vitton? No, no and no.
I figure those advertisers drop $80,000 a page plus to reach a certain demographic - and I am happy they subsidize such amazing journalism...but the ads are 99% a complete disconnect for me. The future is niche and big...the mushy middle is not where you are going to make it.