Bookmarks drive magazine sales

What did you notice first in this photo of magazines? Hopefully it was the four yellow tags. They are a bright yellow arrow pointing to a title as being just in. These bookmarks are our latest innovation in magazine promotion which we are going to be rolling out exclusively through newsXpress locations.

I have had the idea for some time but creating the high quality form cut bookmarks was too expensive for one store. Rolling it out across 150 stores is more viable. It also provides newsXpress an excellent opportunity to demonstrate again its credentials in innovation in magazine marketing.

Vogue Living is a good example where these bright bookmarks can work well. Being monthly it is easy for consumers to forget when the next issue is in – especially if they do not purchase every issue. By being selective in our placement of the bookmarks and limiting the number in use at any time, they become a beacon to eyeballs.

With so much visual noise in a newsagency it is easy for regulars to become store blind. This is a real problem for poster displays. I think a small number of the bright just in bookmarks could do more for the selected titles than a poster display stuck someone on a wall in the newsagency.

Slimming and Health is another good example of where our bookmark strategy will work – even if we get two or three extra glances a day that will lead to impulse purchases.

Just as others copied the magazine club card I developed in 2004, I’d expect other marketing groups to copy this innovation. There is more to this than printing a bookmark and sticking it in a few titles. The bookmarks have been painstakingly designed, the colours carefully chosen and the research undertaken on the number to use at any one time and the titles on which to focus.

While publishers focus attention on newsagents who do aisle end and other poster displays, our view, arrogantly, is that innovation like these bookmarks is far more valuable as drive drive systemic change in the management of magazines in newsagencies.

There were skeptics in 2004 when I created the magazine club card – newsagencies which have embraced this are delivering considerably above average magazine growth primarily because of the loyalty offering.

The newsXpress just in bookmarks won’t deliver a retirement size cash bonus but they will help drive above average magazine sales. They provide practical evidence of the newsXpress point of difference and further support our brand over individual product brands.