Atlantic Business builds awareness of print creative and fine looking magazine ads, too

Atlantic Business magazine has come up with a nifty way to build awareness and commitment with its advertisers and demonstrate the power and value of magazine creative work, according to a story in Marketing magazine. 

Regular advertisers (those having booked 3 ads between 2009 and 2010) have until the end of February to respond to the statement "Why I believe in magazine advertising". The staff of the magazine will pick the winner and six Atlantic Canada advertising agencies  -- Colour-NL, Extreme Group, Impact Communications, Spark Marketing, The Idea Factory and Spectacle Communications Group -- will create a magazine and online campaign for the winning entry. Then the client and a panel of target readers along with online voters will decide which campaign will run in the May, July and September issue of Atlantic Business. The whole package is worth about $165,000, including the free service and space./div>

Dawn Chafe, editor of Atlantic Business, says the contest shows advertisers that how compelling magazine creative can be and gives participating agencies a way of showing off their creative abilities.

"Advertising in a magazine like ours allows readers to examine the advertising with a depth they can't in any other medium," Chafe said. "And more than anything, our readers, who are [advertisers'] potential clients, don't see advertising as an intrusion on their life. They digest it at their own pace and on their own time and it stays with them longer....Clients often step back from really courageous creative and say, ‘Let's play it safe,' so it may not have the impact it might have had," Chafe said. "But it's written into the contest rules that, if you're submitting, you're relinquishing some of that control."

In the ABM blog, Chafe credits the idea to one of the participating agencies, Colour-NL.

A chance conversation with Sean Charters, vice president and managing partner of Colour-NL, revealed a shared lamentation for the forgotten beauty of print – and sparked a mutual determination to turn things around. The resulting plan, fully developed in less than 60 minutes, is a testament to Charters’ hyper-creative mind, and my own lesser talents as a prolific note taker.