Magazines Canada launches mashup campaign to promote newsstand sales

“It’s to remind and position Canadian magazines in front of Canadian audiences,” said Matthew Holmes, CEO of Magazines Canada. “We have a great subscription base in Canada, we’re a world leader from what we understand, and newsstands have always been a place where Canadians encounter lots of other voices. We wanted to put Canadian magazines at the forefront, we wanted to remind and raise the profile and the mashup theme is a really playful way of building off our Anything Can Happen campaign from a few years ago.”

Holmes said the campaign plays to consumers’ diversity of interests, adding that the idea behind it aimed to show Canadians how much there is to discover at a newsstand.

The campaign launched with one of three videos (the other two to be released in the fall and winter), describing readers getting lost in their magazine experience.

“It’s a short video story and in the story, two people are at the newsstand and they get lost in the pages of a magazine. And it evokes a special kind of magazine magic, where their two magazines get mashed together,” according to Brianne DiAngelo, communications manager for Magazines Canada.

Holmes likes the videos, describing them as incongruous and dynamic. “You’re left – you’re waiting for the punchline, and I really like that about them. They’re smart but they don’t just feed you the answer.”

“This is a newsstand-oriented campaign,” Holmes said. “We’ve seen really great growth at newsstands for Canadian titles over the last decade, so we’re always trying to improve and find ways to stimulate that. It’s a challenging environment, but we’re cautiously optimistic. This campaign (will) hopefully serve as a support.”

“Canadian Magazine Mashups showcase how the experience of our stories captivate and arrest us—take us to another place, and then bring us right back home,” says Annie Gabrielian of St. Joseph Media.

DiAngelo describes the campaign as a cooperative marketing campaign, bringing together publishers, retailers, distributors, and wholesalers, in a national effort to promote Canadian magazines. The campaign aims to benefit all of those groups involved.  Other elements of the campaign, developed in association with K9 strategy+design Inc., include print ads and memes, gifs and social media. The Canadian Magazine Mashup campaign takes a multiplatform approach, with the videos and a social campaign, but will also target consumers directly in store, in print, events across the country, and a curated blog of #magazinemoment must-reads.

“We’re trying to reach the Canadian public wherever they are and to encourage them to go to a retail outlet and purchase a magazine,” DiAngelo said. “The campaign, in a way, is mimicking the multiplatform approach Canadian magazines are using, trying to reach people wherever they are.”

Magazine Mashups will be released on social media at @MyCdnMags, online at CanadasMagazineStore.ca/video, in retail locations across the country and in partnership with exciting Canadian events, organisations and festivals happening all year.

Magazines Canada is a member of FIPP.

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