It had brought over the heads of the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) from the UK to explain why marketers should be investing more in customer publishing.
Customer publishing, for those wondering what on earth I’m talking about, is the publishing of magazines on behalf of a brand. In effect, the brand has its own magazine (sometimes it is even able to sell ads in it to offset the cost). At a time when everyone is talking about branded content, it should arguably be bigger news than it is.
I know the APA well, and, for what it’s worth, it is a good example of a proactive media trade body whose activities have helped expand its sector (Asia could certainly do with a few more of those). According to the official data, customer publishing is the UK’s fastest-growing marketing sector after online - and there aren’t many parts of the print industry that can make that claim.
In the UK, all sorts of brands have their own editorial products - retailers, banks, pay-TV companies, auto firms, even FMCGs. The industry is worth a colossal US$1.4 billion in that market alone, and the UK’s top four magazines by circulation are all customer titles. By contrast, customer publishing is tiny in Asia, outside the travel and property industries. It’s so small that nobody even bothers counting how much it’s actually worth. So can we expect this sector to take off in a similar manner?
On one level, I have my doubts, and for a couple of reasons. For a start, the media industry itself is much less developed. In London you can’t swing a cat without hitting a journalist; but even in markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong the publishing industry operates on a far smaller scale, making the sourcing of talent to fuel growth a real issue.
Perhaps more importantly, there’s the issue of client education. In the UK publishers have successfully convinced marketers to move budget from direct marketing into customer publishing. The argument is that a magazine can act as a mailshot or catalogue only far more engaging. But in Asia’s emerging markets, where direct marketing in the classic sense barely exists, publishers will have a tougher job making the case - there aren’t many mailshots to replace.
Where it will become interesting, however, is digital. Online, the boundaries between editorial content, branded content and pure marketing are far, far more blurred. What will be interesting is who lays claim to the sector - classic publishers, or digital agencies hiring journalists (or ‘content specialists’, as they will have to rebrand themselves).
Content of one form or other now seems central to marketing communications in the future. The question is who will produce it.
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in 8 October 2009 issue of Media.
Customer publishing, for those wondering what on earth I’m talking about, is the publishing of magazines on behalf of a brand. In effect, the brand has its own magazine (sometimes it is even able to sell ads in it to offset the cost). At a time when everyone is talking about branded content, it should arguably be bigger news than it is.
I know the APA well, and, for what it’s worth, it is a good example of a proactive media trade body whose activities have helped expand its sector (Asia could certainly do with a few more of those). According to the official data, customer publishing is the UK’s fastest-growing marketing sector after online - and there aren’t many parts of the print industry that can make that claim.
In the UK, all sorts of brands have their own editorial products - retailers, banks, pay-TV companies, auto firms, even FMCGs. The industry is worth a colossal US$1.4 billion in that market alone, and the UK’s top four magazines by circulation are all customer titles. By contrast, customer publishing is tiny in Asia, outside the travel and property industries. It’s so small that nobody even bothers counting how much it’s actually worth. So can we expect this sector to take off in a similar manner?
On one level, I have my doubts, and for a couple of reasons. For a start, the media industry itself is much less developed. In London you can’t swing a cat without hitting a journalist; but even in markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong the publishing industry operates on a far smaller scale, making the sourcing of talent to fuel growth a real issue.
Perhaps more importantly, there’s the issue of client education. In the UK publishers have successfully convinced marketers to move budget from direct marketing into customer publishing. The argument is that a magazine can act as a mailshot or catalogue only far more engaging. But in Asia’s emerging markets, where direct marketing in the classic sense barely exists, publishers will have a tougher job making the case - there aren’t many mailshots to replace.
Where it will become interesting, however, is digital. Online, the boundaries between editorial content, branded content and pure marketing are far, far more blurred. What will be interesting is who lays claim to the sector - classic publishers, or digital agencies hiring journalists (or ‘content specialists’, as they will have to rebrand themselves).
Content of one form or other now seems central to marketing communications in the future. The question is who will produce it.
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in 8 October 2009 issue of Media.
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