The Power of Print

6|17|2010

This March, five leading magazine publishers launched a campaign called The Power of Print®. I ran across the ad in either Real Simple or People magazine; I can’t recall which, but I do remember it stopped me on the page. The logo: letters pulled from iconic magazine title mastheads? Love it. The creative delivery of the message - love that too?

There’s a lot going on here for me.

First, I love magazines. I used to be a junkie, before I had kids and had to reform my habit. Now, I enjoy my select few and the occasional indulgences; or interesting covers, new titles that catch my attention, something I grab at the office, an old favorite, a guilty pleasure.

Second, I’m in advertising. Hello. See point above, why I got into the business in the first place. I read the ads. I read the letter from the editor. I read the table of contents and the letters to the magazine from the readers. It takes me three months to read Vanity Fair.

Third, I’m in research. I collect data, facts and opinions. And since I find the facts about media consumption so wrong half the time (for goodness’ sake people are still reading magazines), this was refreshing to me. On the micro site, there’s an interesting video of the CEOs/Editors In Chief, and although I was a little distracted by the participants {I can’t explain why}, the message is good for the industry.

In the meantime, I asked my {younger} media-planning colleague her thoughts about the ad: “…love the logo, but I'm not ‘drinking the kool aid’. I still think that print (including magazine) is declining -- I don't think magazine "growth" is keeping up with the general US population growth, and especially not with the younger crowd.” I love Elizabeth; she keeps me thinking.

And here is a review of the print campaign from the Wall Street Journal plus a great ad in the series featuring Michael Phelps.

I do hope the campaign has the positive effect they are looking for. I’m glad they did it and it gave me a good fix. Check it out.

Photo credit: bravenewtraveler

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