House party: Gaby Huddart of Good Housekeeping UK on how live events are helping to build the GH brand
“Bigger, better and bolder,” is how Gaby Huddart, Editor-In-Chief of Good Housekeeping UK and Group Editorial Director Hearst UK, describes her magazine’s upcoming live event in London. They are not just idle words. Building on the success of last year’s inaugural Good Housekeeping Live, this year’s instalment on 10-11 November will dial up the food tasting experiences, inspiring workshops, literary discussions and celebrity appearances. It’s a high-profile event that acts as the perfect extension of the Good Housekeeping brand.
“Live events are part of a diversified revenue mix for a healthy brand,” says Huddart. “The key thing about putting on a successful live event is to stay true to a brand’s values so that it represents an interactive embodiment of that brand, which is what we do with Good Housekeeping Live.
“Any touchpoints with our audiences is important – be that when they read a print magazine, engage with a digital newsletter, look up a recipe or product review online, buy one of our licensed products or come to a live event.
“As a media brand, Good Housekeeping has a very broad eco system that includes far more than just readable content and interactive, live events are likely to be part of our mix looking ahead as we know our audience trusts us to put on entertainment they enjoy.”
A sprinkling of stardust
GH has taken the lessons of 2022 on board to make the 2023 version an even more memorable event. With last year’s instalment slightly limited by the size of the venue, the action has moved to the historic 116 Pall Mall, a much larger space, which allows more speakers, bigger audience sizes and more room for main sponsor Dyson and other partners to interact with delegates and showcase what they do.
Like last year, the event has lured a number of big names with talks by Dame Mary Berry, Carol Kirkwood, Louise Minchin and Trinny Woodall already sold out.
“Many of the speakers at Good Housekeeping Live are well-known names who we work with during the course of the year, interviewing them across our various platforms,” says Huddart. “We’re working with the celebrities who resonate with our audience, and we build strong relationships with them so they’re happy to work with us in this live environment, too, and are keen to meet our audience face-to-face.
“The same goes for our sponsors – we build very strong, ongoing relationships with the partners we work with, which means we have a similar outlook and vision for communicating their messages to our audiences. We work with brands and companies with similar values to our own – Good Housekeeping is a best-in-class media brand, and our partners are the same in their markets.”
Seal of approval
The close relationship the brand has with its commercial partners is further reflected in the success of the Good Housekeeping Institute, famous for its rigorous product testing and much-vaunted Seal (dating back to 1909) indicating to consumers wares have been tried and can be trusted. The GHI does not only forge close ties with manufacturers but also shoppers who value the Institute’s input.
“We often ask ourselves how do we know that consumers trust us to give them the right advice when it comes to product purchase? And the answer is always that, first-off, they tell us directly by getting in touch to tell us how much they value our advice,” says Huddart.
“We also know through our commercial partners, who come back year after year to use our GHI Approved endorsement to help them reassure their audience that the product has been put through its paces in our quality assessment tests at the Institute.
“The power of a GH endorsement lies in this trust that consumers have in our endorsement, which helps the GH brand overall as consumers engage with us on multiple levels through print, digital and experiential. GH is their trusted friend and pillar that they lean on when they want to know how to make their lives easier and buy the right product for them.”
Taking product testing a step further, GH has also launched a Reader Recommended initiative. Drawn from a growing database of 14,000 consumers, a reader panel test and review products, services and books in their own homes under the guidance of GHI experts.
“As a brand, we love delving into the answers that our readers supply when they answer a survey based on at-home testing of product or their experience of using a brand,” says Huddart. “Our readers are such an excellent source of real-life experience that the brands we work with often repeat the process with us to find out more and to keep in touch with their audience through us.
“It’s given us another bow to our string in terms of how closely we can work with partners and allows our consumers to give their genuine feedback on a product or brand. They love telling us what they think and it really helps us keep close to our readers and their opinions on everything from shampoo to customer service. This often helps us when deciding what we want to write about or feature in the magazine, so for us it’s invaluable.”
Food for thought
Like all media brands, GH has had to ride out the twin storms of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, ensuring it kept pace with the changing needs of its readers. For instance, the brand’s consumer affairs experts have been producing finance content to help all levels of income – ranging from advice on how to slash living costs, to how and where to invest when interest rates are so low.
Meanwhile, the GH cookery team has been developing a huge number of low-cost recipes to enable those who need to economise to continue to eat well, at the same time as still developing aspirational, more trend-led dishes.
“Good Housekeeping is very fortunate to have a very large, broad and diverse audience. However, this does means that, while many have been little affected by the cost-of-living crisis, others are definitely feeling the pinch and are having to review their spending and finances,” says Huddart. “It’s our role to address the needs of all of these readers and our expert team works incredibly hard to do this.”
The trust has been built up between GH and readers over decades will influence the way the brand moves into the future as well – including the way the magazine integrates new technology.
“Good Housekeeping has remained at the forefront of women’s lifestyle media for over a century, largely thanks to our team of talented experts, but also, in part, because of how we’ve consistently responded to new trends and technology,” Huddart points out.
“While no technology will be able to replace our journalists – who are so well respected for their unique, personalised insight – we do explore ways we can incorporate new technologies to help our existing teams and boost efficiency.
“Ultimately, it all comes down to trust. Our readers come back to us because they know our content and testing is reliable, so we would only integrate systems that support the work Good Housekeeping is so highly respected for.”
