Selling the cover of a magazine used to mean choosing a cover story or image that would draw readers in at newsstands, but recently the term has taken a more literal turn as more Canadian mags (Chatelaine and Maclean’s, for example) place ad executions on the prime space. Best Health magazine, owned by Montreal-based Reader’s Digest, has joined the roster with their summer issue this month, utilizing its extra width to create a ‘two-step’ cover ad for Lipton Sparkling Green Tea.
‘There’s been a lot of interest in the creative execution. Certainly within the industry, there’s been a fairly big discussion about that, and I think from a reader point of view it’ll be certainly engaging,’ Larry Thomas, VP and publisher of Reader’s Digest tells MiC.
With media buy handled by OMD, the mag’s cover is printed three times (one on top of the other), with Lipton ads on the inside flaps of the first two covers. Creative concept was by Best Health and Lampo Communications did the final execution for the ad, which links to an online contest to win a diamond bracelet at BestHealthMag.ca/lipton. On just the first day the contest drew 1,000 entries, says Thomas.
‘We’re really open minded to various executions that are most appropriate for the strategy,’ says Thomas about possible future executions for the magazine, which has a paid circulation of 125,000 and targets women aged 35 to 55. ‘We want to be strategic in working with our clients and determining what the best execution is. So it might be something of this nature, it might be a different iteration of that, it might be a series of booklets that could carry the Best Health brand and align the client with that particular initiative.’
