Saturday, April 18, 2009

Mine. All Mine.


This afternoon I was flipping thru the latest issue of INStyle magazine, and found an interesting ad - I know, that's weird! The ad promotes a very cool way to get 'personalized' magazine content. Hard to explain, actually, but it works like this:

You go here to a special offer from Time Magazine, and choose five magazines from a lineup of about eight. Then you answer a few 'personal preference' questions. And you enter your info (name, email, etc.) and decide if you want this 'thing' in print, or a digital version. Then you click 'submit'.

What happens is that within a few weeks, you'll receive either a print magazine (if you are one of the first 20K to enter) or a digital mgazine (if you are one of the first 200K to enter) delivered right to you! And that magazine will have content that has been chosen according to your magazine choices and personal preferences. So, in a few weeks, I'll receive a magazine with content from INStyle, real simple, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, and Time magazines. And I chose the digital version, because I already have enough stacks of mags and books around here. It's the greener option, and I try to choose that whenever I can.

This is a promotion sponsored by Lexus, so it's a limited time offer and program. However, I think this is a FABulous idea for magazine publishers. Maybe not a print version, but can you imagine a subscription service where users choose content categories, and then a monthly email delivers a digital magazine that is all about their interests? Pubishers could make use of archived content and even defunct titles (ahem - are you listening, publishers of Domino, Oprah Home, MEHC, Country Home?) As digital media goes, it's 'content on demand' - and even the ADS could be tailored to fit. Talk about hitting your market demographic!

OK OK, I know I'm getting ahead of myself here.... who knows where this will lead? I just love finding new and interesting concepts & ideas. Let me know what YOU think about the possibilities of this one, and if it gives you any ideas for promoting your business!
image credits: Time Magazine

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