VIDEO: Team Canada – how Blue Ant Media is growing Cottage Life

Are we still seeing distinct content for print, digital, & television? (0:02)

Zikovitz: “There is an overlap, but not that big an overlap over all of these. It really expanded the brand by moving Cottage Life from more than just a magazine to go in all the other [channels]. There’s a different audience and as a result I think the content that goes into each of these media has to be different as well.” 

Has digital been a means of expanding rather than simply relocating your audience? (0:23)

MacMillan: “Well certainly, I mean it’s less of a commitment on the digital front necessarily, like you don’t have to buy a subscription for example. And television is much more broadly available. So we’ve got 2.6m people in subscribers to our TV channel, and since there’s nowhere near that many Canadians that own a cottage, it’s pretty obvious that most of them are watching the material on Cottage Life Television as an aspirational idea. So it’s not that they’re looking for cottage renovation tips, or barbeque advice, or stuff like that… you know the idea of weekend living, of relaxation, of fun is enough to bring them there.”

On mediums helping to grow other mediums… (1:01)

MacMillan: “But you know Al’s point: because the overlap of who reads Cottage Life magazine or who goes to it online or who watches on TV, the overlap is not all that significant. It has meant that we have expanded the number of people who do go to the consumer show because they were introduced to it via the TV channel. And so each of those three interest groups has helped to increase the other one simply by being a megaphone and introducing them to the brand and the concept.”

Zikovitz: “And it also allows the hardcore cottager who just had a magazine before… now that hardcore cottager has more than a magazine. They can get their fix through the magazine, through TV, by coming to the show, on the web etc.”

What content works best for which mediums? (1:50) 

MacMillan: “There’s little doubt in my mind that most of TV is entertainment – another word for that could be aspirational too, but it is an entertainment medium primarily. And so it doesn’t contain anywhere near the hard information that is required online and certainly in print. Without a doubt”

And which of these three mediums is best for future growth? (2:15)

Zikovitz: “I think to answer just part of that… once we came together the revenue growth for each individual medium that we’re on has increased tremendously. I mean in the magazine as a result of this magazine revenue has increased 25 per cent, television revenue increased 32 per cent, digital revenue increased 160 per cent. That all increased. We are still looking for even more ways of expanding the brand. Now with licensed merchandise we license companies to manufacture and sell merchandise with the Cottage Life brand. That is a big growth point for us in the very near future, so we’re still looking at different ways of expanding the brand.” 

 

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