Eight of the Top 10 circulating magazines in the U.K. are now “customer magazines.” This means that in the country that brought us William Caxton and the first commercial printing press, 80% of the most popular magazine titles are being published by consumer brands—not traditional magazine publishers.
So the quadrennial world watercooler fest is over, and some of us reluctantly refocus on ongoing summer baseball, cycling, NFL exhibition games, hot dog eating and Polanski-berating contests as a poor substitute for the passion, the emotional highs and lows, and the sheer, shimmering spectacle that the last month in South Africa brought us.
The 2010 annual customer service champs list in BusinessWeek was published recently, and it's similar this year to last, with the notable exception of the entry of L.L.Bean at No. 1. It says a lot for the changing nature of our customer relationships as consumers that e-commerce and online businesses rank so prominently in this list. Amazon.com, Zappos, Apple, USAA and, of course, L.L.Bean are all brands with minimal or limited retail presence.
SEO, SEM . . . It seems a sepia-tinted age ago that every marketing conversation did not include the 'S'-for-Search word. We are guilty as charged here in Greensboro Central, too. So, it gives me pleasure to reproduce a recent post from my friend Rob Norman, North American CEO of Group M. Rob’s blog is an enlightening and entertaining place to stop by. Here, he introduces a note of caution for marketers seeking what might be best described as SHG (Search Holy Grail).
Actually, it’s the Custom Content Council. I omitted the word “Custom” because the title without it sounded like a good band name—like the Style Council—only with substance!
In the late 1990s, our office was full of writers and “technical” guys (I don’t think we had adopted the word “developer” at that point), feverishly writing screeds of copy for new Web projects demanded by our clients who were busily jumping into the brave new Internet world. It’s interesting to recall because at the time—like social media now—no rules were set and everyone was following their best instincts to explore the new medium.
We have been luxuriating in the warm glow that surrounds achieving success at a major industry event. On the custom content side of the business that time comes around each November when the Pearl Awards—hosted and sponsored by the Custom Publishing Council—are announced. When I worked in the ad business there was always much angst about these types of awards—which are variously seen as “great for clients,” ”great for the agency,” “self-serving,” “a great vindication of our work,” “a waste of time” or “a great morale booster.”
Craig Waller
Craig is one of our chiefs…
To borrow from the ‘60s and ‘70s theme of Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n' Roll, I'd say the theme for Men's Health magazine would be Sex, Vitamins and Grooming.
I'm reviewing the Men's Health website for the final review in our blog series on the websites of top magazines. What a contrast between my first review, of Parent & Child, and Men's Health. The Men's Health site's top navigation tells you all you need to know of this audience's cultural concerns: Fitness, Sex & Women, Health, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Grooming and Video.
The Ryder Cup Matches is a golf competition between the United States and Europe. In the world of grocery store marketing, the U.K. has often beaten the States in using data and custom content marketing to retain and grow per-customer sales.
I'm delighted to publish Pace's second bar chart featuring the number of social media followers of U.S. Grocery Chains. This update focuses on Facbook, Twitter and YouTube. We dropped the numbers for Flickr because so few companies had that social media channel, and we also show the number of stores for each chain and publish the name of the company.
In this update to the infographic that shows the number of magazines published on the top eReaders including iPad, Kindle, nook, and Sony Reader, the iPad continues to lead in the number of magazines published—with 167 magazines published, compared to 141 in July. Pace added a magazine to the total, with the publication of the Bluetooth SIGnature Magazine on the iPad.
Content strategy was the biggest take-away for me from the 2010 Custom Media Day event in New York last week, probably because the topic is top of mind for me when working in my role as a content strategist for several clients here at Pace.
To explore how companies are evolving their content strategy, I’m going to conduct interviews with a series of companies on the topic. My first interview is with Ken Kaplan of Intel Corporation, where Ken is New Media and Broadcast Manager, Global Communications. I first met Ken at a Society of New Communications Research event a few years ago, where we were both exploring how social media can be used for communications and marketing.
Take a look at the accompanying infographic on the number of magazine titles available for digital e-readers, and the iPad is the clear winner despite being a late starter with 141 magazine titles. While its older eInk cousins are left in the dust. Even the venerable old kindle platform has only 63 titles, less than half the number available on the iPad.
This Pace infographic on the number of social media followers for US Grocery Chains provides a fascinating look at the level of activity and engagement by Grocery chains for their marketing efforts.
As the father of a 3-year-old and someone whose family has grappled with the complexities of raising a child in the 21st century while managing careers, I chose to review Parent & Child magazine's website.
This is my—and Pace's—first entry in a series of digital magazine reviews of top ABC magazines and Adweek Hot List magazines. We want to review some great digital magazines and learn from the best in our sister industry, in terms of content, design and editorial management.
The biggest buzz in the publishing industry is around Apple’s iPad and how the new tablet changes how magazines can be displayed on a color screen. Some writers, such as Jeff Javis and John Battelle, believe the technology is a dead end. But for me, one reason I may be betting on the iPad is because of my perspective as a member of the custom content marketing industry.
Formerly known as custom publishing, the industry provides custom magazines and digital editions to clients. Often clients in the custom publishing industrydon’t charge their members or consumers anything for delivering magazines. The value to the corporate client for providing free editorial content comes from retaining clients, educating members or inspiring partners.
As a custom content marketing agency, Pace Communications straddles the digital divide. There is great convergence between print and digital, especially when it comes to developing content for each channel. One area of convergence exists with print advertising—from finding ways to send additional readers to the Web for promotion, and being able to track how many people go to the Web from a print publication. Here are several ideas for improving trafficking and metrics with using the Web for print advertising:
The last panel of the Custom Content Conference 2010 in Nashville, Tenn., was "Mobile Trends: Research and Case Studies," with Susan Kevorkian, IDC Digital Marketplace program director: mobile media and entertainment, and Howard Hunt, vice president of new business, The Hyperfactory.
Howard presented the United Nations Voices campaign, which consisted of a series of ads, where consumers, using their mobile camera phones, could snap a picture of a person's mouth in the ad; the consumer can then listen to that person from a recording on their phone.
Speaking at the Custom Content Conference, Scott Durand, vice president of marketing, Great American Country Television, explained how, by showcasing new acts, not only has GAC given advertisers great opportunities to associate their brand with rising stars like Taylor Swift, but GAC partnered with Future Farmers of America to showcase new acts at their convention and in FFA's custom magazine.
My colleagues and I here at Pace Communications have developed six steps to custom content development with accompanying infographic to illustrate the process, we also built a custom content process webpage where you can grab some code to embed the image in a website or PowerPoint. Feel free to use the graphic when developing your custom content; here are the six steps:
Drew Westen, Ph.D., founder of Westen Strategies, co-founder of Implicit Strategies and professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, conducted a study to discover that partisan supporters of political candidates and parties are not swayed by facts, but by emotion. The study has great implications for politics and business.
The first event at the Custom Content Conference was the cocktail reception and tour at the Country Music Hall of Fame; sponsored by Zinio, from 7 to 9 p.m.
A great time was had by all, exploring the amazing history of the American country music scene, it seemed very appropriate for an industry that makes its profits from creativity and content.
Albert Jan Prevoo is director of customer media at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in the Netherlands. Albert was kind enough to give some insights into KLM’s digital strategy. This interview is the last in a series of blog posts for the Custom Content Conference in Nashville. We’ve interviewed fantastic interactive managers at Kodak and the National Hockey League; now Albert gives you his thoughts on digital marketing for the airline industry.
Alex Simon will be speaking at the 2010 Custom Content Conference on Thursday, March 25, 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. He is senior director, Digital Business Development, for the National Hockey League, and he joined the NHL's media legal department 3 years ago. Following my interview with Tom Hoehn of Kodak about their digital strategy, I thought I’d ask some of the same questions and a new question about mobile digital strategy.
Tom Hoehn, director of Interactive Marketing and Convergence Media for Kodak’s Chief Marketing Office, is giving a presentation at the 2010 Custom Content Council conference—“Content: Use It or Lose It, Taking Advantage of Content in a Custom Media Age." And as I will be attending the event, I thought it would be great to gain some insights into Tom’s digital marketing strategy at Kodak. Here’s the result.
A custom content strategy without marketing objectives is like preparing for a camping trip without a known destination in mind. If you prepared for Death Valley but hiked Everest, all of your warm weather preparation would be of little value.
There’s a big difference between objectives and strategy. Objectives are what you want to achieve, and strategy is how you get there.
John Cass
John is head of digital marketing.
By the end of May 2010, 49.1 million people owned a smartphone. This is according to a recent study conducted by Comcast that took place between February and May of this year.
As predicted, we're continuing to see new players pop up in the eReader market. Sony is expected to release two new eReaders, the PRS-350 and PRS-650, in addition to the rumors that they are working on an Android-based tablet. Plastic Logic also announced that they have ceased production on their Que eReader, which was supposed to launch earlier this year.
“Magazines are making a comeback thanks to the Apple iPad,” writes Jeff Cormier on TheiPadFan.com. In his article he cites pubs like Glamour and Wired who have each experienced new success with their respective iPad apps. So how quickly should we jump on this new technology?
With the number of eBooks sold surpassing the number of hard-copy books sold on Amazon.com, there’s no question that the concept of the eReader is working. (No kidding.) But what about other kinds of digital content?
This may or may not be a surprise to you, but the iPad isn’t going anywhere soon. If you’re starting to think that this is playing out like a certain other device that took the digital world by storm nine years ago … well, you’re probably right.
In an article for The New York Times technology blog “Bits,” Nick Bilton writes that many publishers are “aggressively experimenting” with new devices (i.e. eReaders) that could potentially take the place of their current paper-based products. Interestingly, as Bilton notes, a lot of magazine apps don’t offer the ability for readers to link to or send what they read on the screen to Internet-based social networks like Facebook or Twitter … yet.
The release of the no-frills Kobo eReader (born from a partnership between Borders bookseller and Kobo, an online eBook retailer) seems to have sparked a trend. Last week, both Barnes & Noble and Amazon slashed the prices of their Nook and Kindle, respectively, in response to the Kobo and its $149 price tag. And it makes sense. While the Kindle, Nook and now the Kobo can’t compete head to head with the iPad and all its apps and features, they can definitely compete where it may just matter a little more: the consumer’s wallet. If it really is the convenience of digital content that makes it so appealing, why not forego the extras and save a little money?
With the huge success of both the Kindle and the iPad (as well as other eReaders), the written word is rapidly becoming more and more comfortable in the digital format. But should custom content transferred from the page to the screen really be so different? Popular Mechanics’ Senior Technology Editor Glenn Derene recently told Daily Finance, an AOL Money and Finance site, "No matter how excited you get about interactive design, you can't lose sight of one basic thing, which is nobody needs to learn to use a magazine." When creating their iPad app, the magazine decided that their goal was not to impress their readers with fancy technology, but instead to replicate the most successful aspects of the magazine format while utilizing the iPad’s capabilities.
So should we think of digital magazines as just that—a magazine that just happens to be read on a screen instead of paper—or does this new format demand a new attitude? Here’s more on the subject:
Digital Trends Team
Insights on eReader, mobile and digital trends from Pace.
Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #custcontent, featured an informative discussion this past week with Leslie Poston (@leslie), social media consultant, speaker and author of “Twitter for Dummies.” Leslie gave insights on using social media as part of content strategy, as well as plenty of tips for using Twitter. A few highlights:
Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #custcontent, featured a lively discussion this past week with Sue Polinsky (@SuePolinsky) of Tech Triad (@techtriad), an online strategy firm based in Greensboro, and volunteer organizer for the Converge South conference (@convergesouth10), a national technology users' conference held in Greensboro, N.C., Oct 1–2 2010.
Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #custcontent, featured guest tweeter and AAA Traveler editor Laurie Borman this past Thursday.
Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #content, continues Thursday, June 24, at 1 p.m. EST. This week’s discussion continues our exploration of the future of publishing with the topic, “Social Media and Print Publications.”
Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #content, continues Thursday, June 17, at 1p.m. EST. This week’s discussion continues our exploration of the future of publishing with the topic “Digital and Print Publications, Part II.”
After a lively first discussion, Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #content, continues Thursday, June 10, at 1p.m. EST. This week’s discussion continues our exploration of the future of publishing with the topic, “Digital and Print Publications, Part I.”
As manager of Pace Communications’ new Twitter feed (@pacecomm), I, along with John Cass (head of digital marketing at Pace), will lead a weekly Twitter hashtag event beginning Thursday, June 3. The #content hashtag event will allow custom content professionals, journalists, media experts and members of the Pace staff to discuss the future of print media and custom content. Each week, we’ll gather on Twitter at 1 p.m. to discuss everything from social media’s role in the publishing industry to digital publishing and what it means for print media.
Jennifer Bringle
Jennifer is an editor and Pace's Twitter manager
MORE magazine. In that one simple word it uses as its title, it promises a lot. Does the magazine's website deliver? Let's take a look.
Lynn Gianiny
Lynn is assistant art director with US Airways Magazine.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Tom Haggai, chairman of IGA, INC. and brand ambassador for IGA in China, at the Pace Communications offices this week about the grocery industry and grocery marketing.
You think of the definition of housekeeping, and it typically doesn't elicit great feelings of excitement (especially for us working mothers). And it's not necessarily a word used to help describe modern family life. For many of us, housekeeping is the cooking, cleaning, laundry and such that we squeeze in on the evenings and weekends. We just do it to get by. So when I was asked to review the Good Housekeeping website, I approached it with a sense of apprehension. Will a brand established in 1885 really have an online offering of interest and value to the modern woman?
Let's admit it: The Runner's World website isn't for everyone. If you have no interest in running or exercising, it's not for you. However, as a recreational runner I jumped on the chance to review it. I am one of those crazy people who actually enjoy running, and when training for various distances from a 5K to a marathon, I have always found the information on the site useful, informative and inspiring.
Emily Wright
Emily works as a new business account manager.
I had high expectations going into this review of Family Circle's website. Though I'm not a subscriber, I like to think I have parallel interests in family-friendly topics—you know, easy dinner recipes, quality time with loved ones, work/life balance. Here's what I found:
Joyce Kuo
Joyce is an account executive.
Cosmo—every single gal's guilty pleasure. Yeah, we pretend we don't buy it. But given the chance, we do, especially at this time of year. It's a fun, mindless read while lounging poolside. Who can resist a good Sex and the City quiz, astrology forecast or vamped-up fashion spread? When you're not poolside, cosmopolitan.com offers the same cheap thrills and many more.
Lisa Summerell
Lisa is an art director.
Latest Posts
- Shopper Marketing Strategy Promises to Boost Grocery Aisle Purchases
- The Future of Magazines (through a Custom Content Lens)
- Men’s Health Website Review
- The UK Loses The Ryder Cup of Grocery Store Social Media Marketing
- Custom Content Grocery Marketing Propels Growth of National & Specialty Chain Brands
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Pace Communications Releases Grocery Infographics
Pace Communications continues its analysis of social media marketing usage in the grocery industry with two new infographics
Bluetooth Publishes All-Digital Issue of SIGnature Magazine
Latest issue takes full advantage of iPad, iPhone, Kindle and rich-media capabilities