Coincidence gives boost to Maisonneuve direct mail package

When the genie comes out of the bottle, always ask for perfect timing. That's certainly what Montreal-based magazine Maisonneuve seems to have had when, all unawares, it delivered a direct mail subscription package headed "Definitely Not Maclean's..." that landed in the mailboxes of some people at precisely the same time a Maclean's subscription pitch and sample magazine arrived. This, according to a Montreal blog called Blork, which wondered if it was a coincidence or a "cool marketing trick".

Pure coincidence, says Maisonneuve publisher Derek Webster.

"Maclean's is the most recognizable Canadian magazine out there, and we certainly tried to use that fact as an establishing point of reference to introduce Maisonneuve to our test audience. Of course everyone in the industry knows that Ken White's Maclean's is livelier, fresher and more insightful than it has been for decades."

The Maisonneuve package, designed by Phillippa Dowding and Kal Honey, worked hard to position the magazine not only as not Maclean's, but "Think: a more youthful Utne with the smarts of Harper's, but by Canadians".