There’s no denying magazines have a magical quality to them, something tangible and glossy that cannot be replicated in our ever-increasing digital world. The feeling of scrolling on a phone is no match for the joy of thumbing through a new magazine. 

In an online milieu, magazines offer us an escape. In fact, new research from Are Media shows 80 per cent of its readers said reading magazines is one of their favourite forms of escapism. Meanwhile 72 per cent love the feeling of holding a magazine.

Further to that, humans recall things we see on paper up to 70 per cent more than when interacting with other channels. Studies show when you read things on paper, you not only have better recall of the information but you are more emotionally engaged.

What does this mean? It means magazines provide the perfect playground for advertisers to get the right sort of attention, and ultimately drive consumer buying decisions.

For media planners and strategists, this kind of information is crucial when planning media campaigns. 

Speaking to B&T, Mindshare CEO Katie Rigg-Smith [featured image] said the holistic experience of magazines that really drives emotional connection.

She said: “With magazines, it is the overall experience that can deliver the emotional intensity. When channel planning, that becomes an interesting input because it can help underscore the creative message you are placing or the partnership you are seeking in a totally different way. 

“Any studies that can quantify the impact of a channel in long-term brand building are incredibly useful when pulling that overall thinking together.”

Magazines in 2021

During its recent Showcase for agencies and advertisers, Are Media unveiled a string of new initiatives for 2021, including a reinvigoration of its beauty portfolio, plans for new e-commerce platforms, a partnership with Adobe and a focus on its young women’s titles with the return of ELLE as a digital pure play.

On Are Media’s positioning for 2021, Rigg-Smith said: “What stood out for me in the 2021 upfront was that Are Media is focused on playing to their strengths whilst also trying to ensure they contemporise the brands going forward.  

“As an industry we need strong media partners who understand their audience and can create content and relationships that deliver positive experiences to them. This gives us more opportunity to engage with people on behalf of our clients and I for one, am hoping to see Are come back with a vengeance in 2021 so that they can evolve the magazine platforms and continue what is undoubtedly a strong legacy of engaging women in conversations relevant to them.”

Part of Are Media’s game-plan in 2021 is its partnership with attentionTRACE Media Planner, a new planning tool for media agencies to make more informed buying decisions based on real human attention.

Developed by Australian academic and researcher Professor Karen Nelson-Field, attentionTRACE is based on empirically led research design that tracks human gaze on a second-by-second level for mobile and TV.

Essentially, this forms a rich set of data that can be mined for deep and practical insight that will “ultimately improve the advertising ecosystem”.

Rigg-Smith said it is obvious Are Media is playing to its strengths with the formation of this partnership.

“With this partnership it is clear that Are is focused on playing to their strengths as a platform, one that by all accounts garners strong attention from their readers. 

“I know the intent is that our Planners will be able to overlay this attention measure onto reach. The benefit is that we can look at different data sets to help determine the key role the channel can play. 

“At the end of the day, that is what is really important – the role that the specific channel is playing in the overall customer experience and how it will deliver the client’s objectives.”