I had a nice email conversation with my friend Nick Green from MacDUFF about their recent launch of the Callaway Online Magazine. Here are some of the outtakes.
Joe - Why did Callaway decide to produce this?
Nick - MacDUFF approached Callaway Golf about a year ago with the idea. With print and US Postal Service charges on the rise and marketing budgets under stress we felt the time was right to go online. Callaway is a technological leader in golf and believe the iMAG can reiterate their stance.
(Note from Joe – MacDUFF refers to a digital/online magazine as an iMAG. MacDUFF built the Callaway iMAG using flash technology.)
Joe - How is the digital magazine/iMAG distributed?
Nick - Through Callaway’s home page (it’s on the navigation bar), a regular email blast to their consumer database and other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. We are also encouraging consumers to share the content through a share function on each page.
Joe - What type of statistics can you share?
Nick - We literally just launched it and the reaction has been terrific. No stats to share yet, but our client is thrilled distribution costs have fallen 60%! The printed magazine was distributed quarterly to 800,000 people. We are testing the iMag without the print option. A six-page refresh is going up this week, which we will continue each month.
The initial reader response has been amazing. Video downloads, shares, forwards are all ahead of our expectations
Joe - How does it integrate with the print magazine?
Nick – It is promoted through the print magazine and features additional content, video golf instruction and read on content. Our print readers can get it and it is also open to all those with web access.
Joe (in Summary) – We’ve seen customers across the board in multiple markets opt-in to receive digital magazines in replace of the print version. It’s possible to see up to 20% of readers choose to convert from the print to the digital version (in addition to some new additional online-only distribution – often international).
In Callaway’s case, it looks like they are taking this opportunity to invest in fresher, more sharable content for their customers. Only time will tell whether this will be a successful move, but it’s clear that brands from every sector are starting to invest more print custom magazine dollars into either digital versions or web content. The print isn’t going away, but it’s definitely being cut. The marketers I talk with are pocketing half the savings, and taking the other half and investing it on the web.
We’ll catch up with Nick in a few months to see how things are progressing. Thanks Nick!
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One Comment
It would be great to see a follow up to this. Now it is up and running what are the results? We still have a number of very sceptical clients about this format. The KLM example still seems to be the one that can demonstrate success which is strange with a digital format that is so easily trackable.