Is L’Oreal wrecking your magazine recruitment strategy?

The Daily Mail is re-launching its highly successful Weekend Magazine on the 30th January. MC&C have seen the dummy and, as you might expect from the deep pockets of Associated, it looks great!

Further refined focus on the female readership with celebrity photo shoots & interviews, fashion, shopping and food, with the usual support in the back half from the weekly TV review, gardening and travel. All in the best possible taste – Darlings!

Issue sizes will increase from 72 to 80 pages and advertising pages will also increase by 3 or 4 an issue. It will benefit from a national marketing re-launch and we would expect the magazine to have traction with the readership and deliver strong numbers.

So what’s the problem? Well if you are a direct response advertiser, then advertising will be restricted to a minimum 4 page “classified” section at the back of the title, with no opportunity to book covers or opposite display editorial pages. As a result, this stalwart of the mail order sector will reduce in its ability to deliver volume, optimum ROI efficiency, as well as brand traction.

So why have The Daily Mail done it? You guessed it – revenue! The national press supplement market has been traditionally reliant on DR revenues for its income. As traditional media channels have diversified and online grown spectacularly, DR advertisers have been spending less.

So who did they turn to? L’Oreal and the other brand fashionistas! But they won’t book into low quality editorial or a editorial environment that contains any DR advertising whatsoever. So media owners have had to fundamentally change their product in order to chase the money.

But Hey! How difficult is this decision really? It’s a no brainer! You Magazine blazed the trail almost 10 years ago, morphing into a quasi Marie Claire / She magazine and banishing all but the blandest of brand/DR ads from the magazine altogether. Live followed – they similarly upgraded their male focussed content two weekends ago – but have not taken DR for over 3 years.

The real “sit up and smell the coffee” moment has been News Group’s Fabulous. On the 3rd February 2008 they scrapped Sunday Magazine , relaunched as a female magazine and banished DR altogether. Sources indicate that this magazine actually saw a double digit revenue increase year on year in very challenging times. This has not gone unnoticed by other publishers.

So how long can Mirror Group & Express resist this move? Even the likes of the weekly magazine groups like IPC and Bauer have done very nicely thank you last year on reduced pagination and FMCG advertising – pushing DR advertisers out because they pay less!

So what to do about it? Yes re-negotiate your rates. But this does not address the fundamental issues of replacing volumes and growing quality customer bases.

So if you thought online was just PPC – think again. Are you engaging with the even larger number of online readers that traditional media owners often reach? Partnerships, video, cost per acquisition deals. No? Colour classified in newspapers? You have never got DRTV to work? And what about pre-rolls and VOD?

MC&C think ahead for our clients and look to manage the risk of evolving recruitment strategies proactively as the marketplace evolves. Remember: the next time you see a lipstick advert in a national press supplement – you are probably kissing a frog!

John Willacy, Trading Director