Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Bus shelter ads will promote the new wordmark, name and website of BC magazine association

The transit-using public in the lower Mainland of BC may perhaps get their first inkling of the new branding for Magazine Association of BC (formerly the British Columbia Magazine Publishers Association (BCAMP)). Starting August 16 and running until October 3 large bus shelter ads will feature the cover images of member magazines and the new wordmark and associated new website address (bcmags.com).

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Sunny said...

Do things like this actually have an impact on magazine sales? I know that magazine associations do things for their membership (will leave it to the usual curmudgeons to debate the merit of things like awards), but how much of a footprint do they leave outside the magazine world?

Curious whether any studies have been done or if other metrics are available?

To me, an ad like that just doesn't make me want to buy magazines - it seems very industry-speak, but maybe that's because I'm already in the industry, and maybe the general public would be more swayed.

Hoping someone with more knowledge in this will chime in.

9:08 pm  
Anonymous Matthew said...

Sunny,

There probably aren't any valid metrics available (I'd imagine subscription campaigns have "how did you hear about this magazine?" checkboxes, but opt-in metrics are very anecdotal), but it's a classic marketing/psychology technique.

It's a very eye-catching poster that people waiting for buses are certainly going to look at. They probably won't head to a newsstand to pick one up, but next time they *are* at a newsstand, they will likely recognize one of the covers as something familiar/trusted and will be more likely to buy it. Visual recognition is much more powerful than textual.

Don't quote me on the numbers (my degree gets older every day), but there have been a number of studies done by psychologists to study this phenomenon. They put flyers into mailboxes and followed-up with these households a week or two later to make sales. The chance of making a sale at a household that had a flyer is ~60% higher than households that didn't.

Basically, it doesn't matter if it makes you want to buy magazines or if you think it's industry speak; your brain is automatically sending these images into its database of "products I know and trust" the same way it did when you laughed at the Old Spice man.

4:41 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I guess one should re-read the title of the blog, and then assess the poster? It certainly does promote the name of the association and its URL. And when you think about the headline and the overall effect, the BC magazine industry should be proud of what it collectively produces, and happy that its association is trying to stay fresh and upbeat in its communications with consumers.

8:35 pm  

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