Pacific Magazines is extending its Marie Claire and Girlfriend brands with the launch of subscription sampling boxes in an effort to boost magazine subs and offer advertisers another channel to reach its female readers.
Subscription sampling boxes are growing in Australia with brands like Bella Box and Red Paw Paw gaining traction. PacMags thinks Marie Claire is the first magazine brand to put its name to such an offering.
Marie Claire is currently calling for subscriptions for The Parcel, which according to the brand will be “a luxury box containing deluxe beauty samples chosen for you by our editors and delivered to your door four times a year.”
The per box cost is $25 a quarter with the brand claiming the contents of each box is valued at over $100.
There are currently several subscription options including paying individually for the box alone as well as receiving it as a bundle alongside a 12 month subscription to Marie Claire for $149.
The spring edit of The Parcel will be delivered in October and will include products from Lancôme, O.P.I, Revlon, L’Oréal Paris and Benefit Cosmetics.
A sampling box for Pacific Magazines' magazine targeting teenage girls, Girlfriend, is also coming soon.
Samples have long been a part of printed magazines but Marie Claire will be aiming to strengthen its offer with advertisers by offering both in-print ads as well as physical products that readers can trial as well as better measurement. It also offers a new revenue stream.
Talking to AdNews for the recent Experiential and Event Marketing Special Report, co-founder and CEO of Bella Box, Sarah Hamilton said its service is more effective than many women's magazines at reaching the femail audience. She added that through sampling it is able to show brands how many customers sampled the product, and then from that, how many went on to purchase the product from Bella Box's website in a short time period.
“Our subscriber numbers are higher than some magazines and when you think about how much brands put into media advertising, we're giving the same exposure through our website and boxes.”
“We can tell a brand that 10,000 people had the product, X% bought it within two days. You can't get that information anywhere else.”
To read more about it, you can download the 8 August issue of AdNews on iPad.
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