LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Building engagement and trust with consumers isn’t a new challenge - but keeping up with the way consumers want to engage is. Whilst traditionally brands have been more focussed on push media, there are new opportunities to give customers the chance to consume the content they want; and to keep it with them on their mobile and tablet devices.
Brands such as Lakeland and B&Q experienced higher levels of customer engagement and greater revenues in 2013 by tapping into the explosion of tablet ownership (now 1 in 4 UK households) and creating downloadable Digital Magazines. These types of publications offer brands the opportunity to bind together some of their richest content – informative copy-led articles, rich imagery, video and interactive tools, games and ads. Creating these different assets for a single communication means a Digital Magazine can be the genesis for other communications. If you’re wondering how great the experience is, download a copy of Lakeland’s award-winning magazine and B&Q’s latest garden magazine from Apple’s Newsstand or Android marketplaces.
The question you might be asking yourself now is ‘does my brand have the authority to publish content in this way?’ The simple answer is yes. Customers expect brands to be a part of their lives, and if done correctly, then consumers overwhelmingly want to engage. Just make sure you only talk about the things where you have the authority and avoid being too broad and shallow.
And how about the cost of distribution? Whilst brands may have previously been restricted by cost of print and postage to get magazine content in the hands of their customers, this has all but diminished in a digital world. Little wonder then that according to Adobe, Digital Magazine downloads soared from 300,000 per week to over 2m per week in 2013, with the average reader attention accounting for an incredible 50 minutes per month.
A new world of content is emerging from those brands already giving customer content through digital channels. But this really is just the start – 2014 will see the more forward thinking businesses blurring the line between brand and publisher and giving their customers great content to engage with using the exciting Digital Magazine channel.
Chris Southgate is Head of Digital Magazine Publication at CHS creative who specialise in content marketing strategies.
