Reader’s Digest is entering into a new and exciting phase in its long history. In a market dominated by long-term decline of so many brands (including our own), our multi-million pound investment will enable us to grow the magazine into a stronger brand. Our ambition is grow the magazine by up to 75% over the next three years up to a circulation of 700,000.
Following a recent audience insight study, the biggest-ever in the brand’s history, we got under the skin of our existing, potential and lapsed target audience to find out what makes them tick.
One aspect of the results screamed loud and clear. Once people get a copy of the magazine, they love it. So, our challenge was, how do we achieve that? One key aspect of our growth will be achieved through a £3 million marketing drive. This is designed to get the magazine into as many people’s hands as possible through UK-wide activity.
Starting from November’s issue, and for every issue for the next three years, the sampling will take place at key transport hubs, including London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Free copies of the full issue will be targeted at groups of 45-60 year old consumers and will account for 15% of the magazine’s July-December circulation. Working with The Network, we will be alternating location, time and day of the week with this exercise, as it’s imperative we don’t bite the subscription hand that feeds us.
The ONS data is clear for all to see. There will be 1.1 million more 45-60 year olds within the decade. This audience is our heartland and always has been. Therefore, by targeting prospective readers with such innovation, we are confident that as one of the leading direct marketers, that we will be able to convert a healthy percentage into subscribers.
From Loaded in 1994, to the relaunched heat in 1999, Glamour in 2001, Grazia in 2005 and Sport in 2006, the magazine market has seen sector growth come from innovation. Embarking on an aggressive and far-reaching marketing drive with innovation at its heart, the model that Reader’s Digest has created – a hybrid of subscription-based sales and sampling – is a magazine industry first and another example of the evolution of the market to meet the needs of audiences.
We are the only media owner on any platform stating such bold growth targets, but then few of them are in the position of having a product as robust as Reader’s Digest or such an expanding target audience.
As this growing, affluent market commands more spending power than ever before, the opportunities this presents are clear. Reader’s Digest has always operated within this increasingly valuable, but often overlooked, territory and understands the rapidly changing audience. Now delivering even more compelling content which resonates with readers, our audience, heritage and evolution should not be underestimated.
With the world-class editor Gill Hudson at its helm preparing for a Spring relaunch, and an innovation programme that will drive circulation and advertiser value, Reader’s Digest’s second Golden Age has unquestionably begun.
