Bauer Media is launching an intregated content hub that groups together content from across its portfolio of magazine brands around lifestyle themes rather than mastheads. It means content on food from Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Gourmet Traveller will sit side by side. Likewise fashion content, or health content from disparate titles will be found together on its much speculated digital women's network.
Launching in March next year are the sites Food to Love and Homes to Love, to followed by Family to Love and Health to Love in quarter two in 2015. The hubs will draw content from the publisher's flagship brands, however Bauer is aiming break down the audience silos that each masthead creates, and is hoping for a halo effect when readers discover content from titles they may not have accessed before.
The new sites will be accompanied by a digital overhaul of Bauer's flagship brands Women's Day and The Australian Women's Weekly.
Bauer's newly appointed head of digital commercial strategy, Monique Harris admitted that while the publisher was late to the digital party, being a second mover has given Bauer the opportunity to get it right.
“We've decided to not not play it safe,” Harris said at Bauer's 2015 upfronts this morning, “We could have just built a women's hub with a front door and a home page just like everyone else, but who wants to be the same as everyone else?”
“Perhaps coming to the party a little late has allowed us to see what everyone else is wearing, so we can wear something completely different,” she said.
Across all of its digital touch points Bauer says it counts 2.5 million hits a month and as part of the publishers digital push it aims to have a digital audience of 4 million plus a month by the end of 2015.
It believes the nine insights it used to inform the build of its new hub will drive the growth.
The insights are: Dissolve content walls, create permission to indulge, surface authentic voices, influence the influencers, join the social dots, always be there (aka mobile first, device agnostic), filter by life situation, simplify choice and make women feel great.
It's this proposition that Harris believes will be vital for brands. “In 2015, we'll have premium women's traffic, we'll have premium women’s content, we need to collaborate with you [agencies and brands] to create premium integrations,”she said.
“In 2015 Bauer's going to be all about women, integration, inspiration, collaboration, quality content, engaged audiences and through your partnerships not just spots and dot campaigns, we're going to produce and provide you with rich consumer insights like never before.”
Bauer also unveiled its next research piece following its friendship study, which looks into the fragmented path to purchase and how brands can leverage female friendships and also better understand the fragmented media channels to create a smoother path to purchase.
For more news see below:
Mercedes signs on as first ad partner for Qantas in-flight network
White wins digital business of NZ seafood company
Unilever rapped for not promoting a healthy lifestyle to kids
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