2. Introduction
As part of my research and planning I have
chosen to research some of the industry that
are involved in the creation of regional
magazines.
By doing this research it enables me to gain
an increased understanding in the area that I
am working within.
In this research I will be looking at the
marketing of regional magazines, case
studies and specific companies,.
3. Marketing
Regional magazines are often free for the
local community and therefore do not use
expensive techniques of advertising as they
are not trying to create a profit. Instead they
use Viral Marketing as it is free method of
getting the magazine more readers.
Viral marketing is a term given to marketing
when it uses social media and word of
mouth. An example of this would be Twitter
and hashtags. Companies can hashtag as a
form of advertisement for their products.
4. Viral Marketing Examples
Twitter is a popular example of Viral
Marketing as business will put a hashtag at
the end of a phrase, If enough people also
post this phrase it becomes viral and
appears as a trend. This trend will be in the
corner of Twitter for everyone to see which
serves as an advertisements for all of the
users.
I could merge the viral marketing technique
with my regional magazine by creating social
media pages on Facebook and Twitter for
my magazine.
5. Specific Companies
Exposed Magazine – Exposed magazine is a
magazine produced in Sheffield by a production
company. They will have dedicated workers working
for exposed in order to create the magazine. If you
look closely at the bottom of the magazine company
it mentions about different social media which
Exposed use, again another example of how they
use Viral Marketing to Market their product. Exposed
magazine have higher production values to that of
other regional magazines due to them having staff
working for them. They also have a larger amount of
people who read their magazine, therefore the
advertisements within their magazine will probably
cost more. Because of the adverts costing more it
allows Exposed to have a larger budget.
Exposed’s Website:
http://www.exposedmagazine.co.uk
6. Specific Companies
Gossip Magazine – Gossip magazine differs
massively from Exposed in regards to production and
marketing. Gossip, unlike Exposed does not employ
people in order to work on their magazine, instead
they have volunteers and amateurs who may write
articles or take photos as a hobby. It is also worth
noting that the area in which Gossip covers is a lot
smaller and focuses on a dense community
(Anston, Dinnington, Kiveton) where as Exposed
covers the whole of Sheffield. Gossip use the word of
mouth method of viral marketing in order to advertise
their product, they do not have a dedicated website
or social networking pages. The reason they use this
method is likely due to because Gossip will have a
much smaller budget in comparison to Exposed as
their reader base is a lot smaller therefore adverts in
Gossip are worth less.
7. My Magazine Style
Following the research of these two companies
and their magazines I believe that my
magazine should be more similar to Exposed
than it is to Gossip. This is because in terms of
quality Exposed is far superior, as it is done by
a production team. If I were to emulate a
similar quality of work within my magazine it
could prove well in showcasing my abilities.
Gossip seems to have a very basic design to it,
a design which could be seen as on the same
level as an amateur. Exposed in comparison
seems to be more creative with the images
and layout, this is probably due to the
designers within Exposed being trained in a
professional manner.
