A tidal wave of swag fattens up U.S. beauty title Allure

After a tryout last summer, beauty magazine Allure has turned its August issue into virtually a smorgasbord of free products for readers.

According to a story in Advertising Age, it's now called the "Free Stuff Issue" and nearly every product mentioned editorially is available either as samples bound into the issue or from the magazine's website. In all, there are 91 products -- from blow dryers to eye shadow -- being given away in one way or another

The ploy has an advantage for the monthly as well, boosting ad pages in a month that is notorious for fashion magazines as being particularly anemic, coming right before fat September issues. Allure's ad pages this August are the highest ever for the month at 135.8, up 9% over last year, the magazine said.

Not every magazine can go down precisely this road. The Allure program plays on a strength particular to beauty titles -- their core advertisers rely on sampling. Readers seem to appreciate it too. Last year's issue produced a 150% spike in web traffic for Allure, the magazine said.