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The media mix now has a new and viable form of print publishing – on-product magazines. The idea is simple: create a small magazine which fits onto a fast moving consumer product and distribute via grocery rather than traditional magazine channels.
The idea is now patented and has launched the first on-product magazine – a bottled water aimed at the female market with iLove magazine attached. Distribution will be focused through convenience stores, supermarkets and gas stations, significantly differentiating the products that carry them and offering advertisers a circulation far in excess of magazines sold through traditional magazine distribution channels. In three months, iLove magazine was the largest circulation magazine in Australia and the company has global aspirations, holding patents for on-product magazines attached to all common food packaging formats.
Print was the first mass medium, the first medium to take advertising, and still commands more than 50% of the world’s advertising expenditure despite the advances of radio, television, outdoor and more recently the internet. Newspapers and magazines have not had an easy time over recent years as the paid circulations of the leading publications have declined, partially due to the ability of the electronic news media to deliver more specialised, relevant and up-to-date news and partially due to the increased competition in the market. The availability of Desktop Publishing tools such as Adobe PageMaker, QuarkExpress and Adobe InDesign have democratised publishing, more than doubling the number of newsstand magazines in most countries and fragmenting the market.
Those magazines which still hold large circulations do so with cover-mounted tip ons, freebies, competitions and massive marketing budgets. While magazines target specific audiences far better than most media, these market forces have detracted from magazines’ ability to deliver large audiences.
This is where on-product magazines come in. They allow publishers to reach a much larger audience than conventional magazines without the huge marketing budgets.
As one would expect, on-product magazines have also had a terrific response from advertisers. Its the progressive, innovative marketers who have been the first to adopt the idea. But as the distribution channels improve, no doubt major marketers will want a piece of the action.