IPC will preview its new fashion and celebrity weekly, Look, with a 1.2 million copy sampling blitz.
The
high street sampling exercise will focus on the magazine’s 18 to 30
year old demographic — taking it the UK’s largest shopping centres,
putting an insert in thelondonpaper and being delivered directly to
customers of the online fashion store, ASOS.com.
Look will also
be distributed through the big four supermarket chains of Tesco, Asda,
Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s, plus Marks & Spencer and WH Smith. It
will be bagged with the 30 January edition of IPC’s celebrity weekly
Now and, in a deal with News International, given away with the London
freesheet.
The choice of outlets, and its comparatively low cover
price of £1.30, are further indications that Look is striving for a
different demographic to Emap’s Grazia, which retails at £1.80 and
looks less to high street fashion for content and advertising than the
new IPC title will.
The sampling exercise is part of an £18
million investment IPC is making in the magazine. Last year saw
similarly extensive sampling as News International’s magazines division
gave away three million copies of a 36-page sample issue of real-life
weekly Love It! in its newspapers, The Sun and the News of the World.
Emap’s Grazia and First gave away between 600,000 and 650,000 sample copies at launch.
Although
Look’s £18 million launch spend easily beats Grazia’s £13 million
record, its sampling exercise is dwarfed by Pick Me Up’s massive 3.5m
sample copies campaign given away free with stablemates Woman, Now,
Chat and What’s On TV in January 2005.
The senior staff line-up
at Look brings in experience from the weekly and fashion markets. Vicky
Grimshaw, who left Grazia after a four-month stint, is assistant
editor. She was previously assistant editor on Closer and women’s
editor on The Sun. Maria Coole, previously editor of The People’s
magazine, Take it Easy, is the deputy editor, while Duncan Baizley, a
former managing editor on Loaded, will take on the same title on Look.
Claire Ray will be beauty director, joining editor Ali Hall, creative
director Lottie Berridge and associate editor Jill Wanless on the
launch team.
Hall said of the team: “To get the opportunity to
build your perfect editorial team from scratch is a rare thing. To be
able to hand-pick the best talent in the industry to launch Look has
been amazing.”
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