Magazines Should Include Book Markers That Are Relevant To The Reader, The Advertiser(s) And The Parent Company’s Bottom Line

I’ve previously written about how magazines could use bookmarkers as a way to get readers to view more print/page advertisements. But I felt the urge/need to touch up on such a topic again.

With such being said, I believe magazines should use different ways to keep readers engaged in the article content, the ads, and the magazine brand. Therefore, I would add tow things to the bookmarker that I described in a previous article besides the decoder window; I would also add the following to such a bookmarker:

1. I would add a QR code on the opposing end of the bookmarker opposite the decoder window. Upon the scanning of such a Q      R code, an individual would be able to access all of the existing deals that are available…

2. I would also add a magnifying glass strip in the middle of the bookmarker, which would expand all the way from the end of the decoder window to the matching end of the QR code.

The magnifying portion of the bookmarker would be useful when reading the small print within magazines, and would give readers an added reason to reuse such a bookmarker while reading other relevant printed materials such as books, other magazines, etc.

Note: the QR code could also be utilized to give readers an easier way to pull up subscriptions ordering info. (Random thought: magazine insert subscription cards should have QR codes printed on them, and such should also be printed on the magazine’s page that reflects ordering information).

Strategically Placed Ads Embedded In Article Content, Leads The Way To Better/ Premium Ads

Magazines could allow advertisers to place ad messages with in the content of Articles that precede their magazine ad page(s).

Advertisers interested in using such an ad in text option, would visit the magazine publisher’s web site, and go to the ad in text web page.

Once on the ad in text (ad text) web page, the advertiser would be able to view edition of the magazine.

After viewing the topic of the article, and the availability of usable/ relevant key words within the article, the advertiser could select such an article for an ad text placement. However, if another advertiser selected such an article for ad text placement, the most recent interested advertiser could offer a higher bid, etc., et. Cetera… (Note: Such also could be done as a first selection process/ non-auction process).

The winning advertiser, would tag all of the key words within the article, and then figure out whether or not to incorporate the same exact message onto the preceding ad page(s).

During the printing process of the magazine, the vast majority of the text within articles selected for ad text placement would be printed using black ink. On the contrary, the key words that were tagged by the advertiser would be printed in a color selected by the advertiser.

The ad text strategy would benefit advertisers – especially since most people’s inquisitive nature would lead them to read the ad text message – especially so, if the person has read the entire article.

If a person takes the time to read the ad text message, they would more than likely be more receptive to viewing the ad page(s) – especially if the ad text message was in question format, with an arrow pointing to the ad page(s), where the answer would be located.

To make the ad text strategy more appealing to advertisers, magazine publishers could also offer the following:

(1) An ad key word system, where advertisers could pay extra to have additional and/ or substitute words placed into the content of the article chosen.

At such a point, the author of the article would be paid extra to revise the article, and have all the added key words featured the final version of the article.

(2) The web page version of the ad text message could have a click and present feature. Such a feature would allow the reader of the article to click on any of the highlighted key words, and at such a point all of the highlighted ad text words would flash onto the page displaying the entire text message… And the additional ad would appear if the viewer clicked on the ad page/ video box that would appear at the end of such a message.

On the other hand, if the viewer decided not to view the ad page/ video they would be able to click onto a close message box, located after the above stated box, and such would return the reader to the previously viewed page.

Since I read lots of magazine, and seldom pay attention to the ads featured therein. I’m convinced that such an ad strategy would benefit advertisers.

Magazine Advertising Needs To Be More Creative…

I love the creative way in which Forbes Magazine has created a subscription order form card with a detachable bookmark. Yet, I believe that a disposable bookmark should be more useful, and shouldn’t have to be removed from a subscription order form card. Therefore, I’m going to suggest the following advertising strategy:

Magazines should create a low-cost disposable bookmark that features a decoder window at the top of such a bookmark, and include one in each magazine. The decoder would be used by magazine readers to decode coded messages placed on AD pages. Therefore, the bookmark would be useful in two ways.

The coded areas on the AD pages would mainly be used to promote prize give aways. Yet, the advertising company could use such coded areas in a lot of different ways – especially if magazines had detachable coded areas on the AD pages.

If magazine companies utilized such an AD strategy, they could charge a premium for such AD spaces. And the companies sponsoring the Ads would receive more views for every AD placed. And best of all users / readers would receive a useful bookmark with every magazine issue.

Advertisement Color Schemes…

Some of the best T.V. commercials and magazine advertisements are predominantly shown in black and white, with splashes of color.

By creating a T.V. commercial and / or magazine AD mainly in black and white, allows for the creator to highlight the featured product and / or service by strategically showing such in color.

A lot of the magazine Ads that are done in the above stated fashion are done correctly. But, most of the T.V. commercials miss the mark in different ways. The following are some of the most common missteps:

 

(1)   If the entire commercial is in black and white, it misses the mark entirely.

(2)   If the commercial runs mostly in a black and white format, the commercial isn’t a effective as it should be.

(3)   If the product, service and / or logo isn’t always featured in color, instead of standing out within a sea of black and white, such will drown within such a sea.

 

Black and white commercials should have splashes of color throughout the entire commercial. The color could be highlighting products or services or things pictured relevant to such, and / or to strategically highlight words… without a commercial, viewers attentions will wander, and the full impact of the message will be lost.

 

 

Magazine Ads Need To Be More Relevant, In Order To Be Effectively Viewed

– The only effective ads that I currently see being placed inside of magazines are contest based ads. Which are the ads that are relevant to the title and/or contest of a magazine article, and are strategically placed inside/ in between the pages of the article, or after the article.

– Other than contest based ads, I have failed to find many relevant ads other than perfume/cologne strips.

– I believe that magazines should create more relevant ads by creating better ad strategies. The following are three of my suggestions:

(1) – Use the magazine cover or table of contents…

(2) – Create an entertainment/ game page that direct viewers to advertisements.

(3) – Make the back cover ad more noticeable.

(1): The front of a magazine in my eyes is the most noticed/viewed part of a magazine. Therefore, it seems to be one of the most neglected ad spaces – especially since most magazine covers aren’t being utilized as an ad space.

– I can understand why most magazine companies are cautious about using the front page of a magazine for showcasing advertisements – especially since they don’t want to dilute or disrupt the main advertisement area for selling the magazine. However, I believe the benefits that come from such an ad strategy would far outnumber any adverse effects that would come about.

– There are many ways to place an ad on the front cover of a magazine, that wouldn’t adversely affect the selling point of the magazine. Yet, my favorite would be to use removable adhesive attachments, which when left attached or removed from the magazine cover, they would not change the cover scheme of the magazine. In other words, the top portion of the adhesive attachment would be identical to what’s depicted in the area of the front cover where it would be attached.

– The advertisement, coupon, etc. would be located on the underside of the adhesive attachment.

– I believe magazine companies should use the adhesive attachment strategy, also, to place advertisements in a creative way upon the magazine’s content page(s).

(2): I’m like a lot of magazine readers when it comes to enjoying doing crosswords, word searches, etc. Therefore, I’m surprised that magazine companies haven’t used the popularity of such games to direct readers to advertisement pages inside of magazines.

– Magazine companies should create game pages that feature popular games such as Sudoku, crosswords, word searches and so forth. Make such game pages detachable, and create certain games in a way in which players would have to view ad pages in order to fully play the games.

-For instance the word search game would only feature the word search box on the game page, and players would be instructed to turn to certain ad pages, to locate the words in which they are supposed to view within the word search box.

– The word search words would stand out from the other words within the advertisement, because the word search words would be a different color than the general words.

– The magazine companies were to deploy such an ad strategy properly, they would be able to guarantee advertisers more views, and friendlier views, and such an ad strategy would create more ad revenue for the magazine company.

(3): Since I rarely view the back cover of magazines, and can’t think of a good reason for most magazine readers to intentionally look at the back of a magazine. I believe that such “back end” ad placements are mainly a waste of money for advertisers; therefore, such should be the cheapest advertisement area of a magazine, if it isn’t the cheapest.

– My best advice on such a matter, would be for a matter, would be for magazine companies to create and use sense provoking adhesive attachments, and strategically place them on the back of the magazine.

– The most logical senses that can be provoked, in order to convince the reader to look at the back of the magazine would be touch, sound and smell. Therefore, I will write an example focusing on the most obvious and easiest adhesive attachment to create (touch).

– The touch provoking adhesive attachment would be a different texture on its top than the feel of the magazine. And such an attachment would be placed in an area of the back of the magazine where people will generally touch.

– In my opinion, magazine companies should be better utilizing the spaces on physical magazines, in order to bring about more revenue from advertisers. And most importantly, the advertisements would be memorable.