Economist taps into Asia’s luxury advertising market with Intelligent Life

Content will be curated from the Intelligent Life a bi-monthly magazine which was launched in 2007 in the UK and Europe to satisfy demand for cultural and lifestyle content from The Economist Group.

The magazine’s current advertisers include some of the world’s top luxury brands including BMW, Cartier, Tiffany & Co, Louis Vuitton and The Peninsular Group. Although unable to share the advertising lineup for the upcoming supplement, Robert Ferguson, sales director for The Economist Group, disclosed that the Hong Kong edition had only one advertising page left unsold.

“Luxury advertisers have expressed an interest in targeting selected Asian cities rather than a pan-regional reach,” Ferguson said.

With increasing personal wealth, Asia’s elite are cultivating a taste for fine wines and spirits, luxury jewellery and automobiles, he added, referencing the recently released Ipsos BE Asia 2011 study.  He noted that the strongest spending was in Hong Kong and Singapore.

A study by the Boston Consulting Group found that one in six Singaporean households has over US$1 million in assets, making it the densest population of wealthy households in the world.

The markets were also selected thanks to The Economist’s leadership position among international weeklies in Hong Kong and Singapore where 30% of BE Asia’s respondents said they read the magazine. “Readers of The Economist look for business ideas, we regard Intelligent Life as a source for lifestyle ideas and even a source for alternative investment opportunities,” said Ferguson who described Intelligent Life as “The Economist in evening wear”.

The supplement is regarded as a method of introducing Intelligent Life to the Asian market and at present will contain no local content. “All content will global but carefully selected to interest our readers in these markets,” said Ferguson.