IPC Magazines is launching its glossy women’s weekly, Now, on the back
of a high-profile pounds 3 million TV campaign produced by Talkback
Productions.
The long-awaited Now debuts on 18 October and aims to take on Gruner and
Jahr’s Here! in a head-on battle to dominate the emerging celebrity-
driven women’s weekly sector.
Now is positioning itself as a classic women’s magazine with a celebrity
focus, which has an intelligent and glossy upmarket feel. The paper
quality is higher than usual for a weekly and the layouts are clean and
uncluttered.
The launch front cover will feature Mel Gibson, whom IPC has identified
as a typical ‘enduring’ celebrity of the kind the magazine intends to
feature.
Now initially goes on sale at 30p, rising to 60p at some point next
year. It is aimed at BC1 C2 women aged 20 to 44. The initial print run
will be 1.3 million and IPC is aiming for a settle-down circulation
figure of 370,000.
The launch issue contains five pages of advertising in a 60-page package
and IPC has pre-sold all advertising space in the first five issues to
three agencies: Zenith Media, Initiative Media and CIA Medianetwork.
According to the publisher, Jackie Newcombe, Now researched well both
qualitatively and quantitatively. ‘People liked the way we’d approached
celebrities and the fact that it appeared to be a classy production.’
She added: ‘Our price-cutting strategy earlier this year was about
establishing that we were the market leader. We knew Gruner and Jahr was
launching something and we wanted to pave the way for our own magazine.’
The TV campaign breaks this Thursday and will run for four weeks. The
creative, which features spoof action- adventure film scenarios, has
been devised in-house and is being directed by Chris Bould at Talkback
Productions, who co-directed the current Miller Time campaign for Rainey
Kelly Campbell Roalfe. Media buying for the Now campaign is through
Zenith Media.
