Whether or not you call yourself a dedicated follower of fashion, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the chic, stylish publication Vogue. The magazine has been a staple in the fashion industry for years, counting among its readers both experts and admirers of the industry.
Typically, the magazine is filled with advertisements, demonstrating the latest styles and designers. Yet over the past few seasons, magazines such as Vogue have seen a significant decline in their advertising space, seriously affecting the revenue numbers for the magazines.
Fortunately, the annual September issue has reversed this decline in ad space, with an additional 100 pages being added for the month (a 23 percent increase from over a year ago). September is a pivotal time for designers and stylists to display next season’s lineup, revealing their brilliant ideas to the world for the first time.
Glamour magazine, another fashion magazine from Condè Nast, has also seen a generous increase in content, putting together their biggest issue in 20 years this September. The magazine has reported that their ad pages are up by 57 percent for the month, including 241 ad pages in the issue this year compared to the 153 pages the previous year.
In the case of Glamour magazine, we’re also seeing the benefits of the connection between digital and print advertisements. Advertisers who bought slots for the magazine’s iPad application were also required to buy advertising space in the print edition, a perfect example of the print and digital medley benefiting publishing companies rather than detracting from their revenue streams.
So what do these statistics prove? The print industry is bouncing back!This week, the Publishers Information Bureau released its 2Q 2010 ad report, confirming that magazine ad revenues and pages have increased for the first time in nine quarters. At the time of the report, ad pages were up by .8 percent, which is actually a significant amount considering the fact that there hasn’t been an increase for two and a half years.
Does the publishing industry have fashion to thank for the uptick in revenue, or are publishers just getting more creative in the ways they can tie in their advertising space? I would surmise that the crossover between digital and print advertising is finally helping to fatten up our print publications, allowing both methods of consumption to thrive.
Lee!
It will be interesting to see if it holds on past the introduction of the Autumn fashion lines. It will also be interesting to see if Publishers continue building more interactive stories by linking their print and pixel approaches like the Calvin Klein campaign or what Road and Track is now doing (OK, it’s cars and not fashion, ut you get the drift!)One complaint I’ve heard form agencies is that these campaigns are, today, more expensive and harder to prove to skeptical product and brand owners.
I’m hoping the buzz will continue to grow – that linking paper and pixel to the ad revenue will make it clear to content publishers that the days of a single channel are gone and the smart money is on the linkage of all channels.
Yes, that means content targeted for paper (DM and on statement when appropriate), and the many pixel-based channels.
The thing we will all have to keep an eye on is message-fatigue. An article in this morning’s International Herald Tribune pointed out the downside with complaints about being tracked closely and almost hounded with pop up ads because of a single response to a click through banner, registering for an online event, or even being associated with a fan group.
If a Glamour reader grabs the September edition to check out the new fashions, clicks through on their iPad to a few designer sites, and then is berated by 6 months of pushes by one of those advertisers it will taint their experience.
Sometimes in the adventure of new technology we forget that you only get one chance to make a first impression. If the first impression of the linking of print and pixel is a bad one, we may lose those readers for good.