Music Magazine- We Love Pop.

Music Magazine.

We Love Pop.

I have decided to research the new music magazine out called We Love Pop. The magazine will target a core audience of 13-15 year olds with in-depth interviews with pop stars, behind-the-scenes exclusives, photos and a "high-end cover gift" designed to appeal to a savvy teen audience.

Egmont saw a gap in the market after another pop music magazine “Smash Hits” ended in 2006. Smash Hits had a similar target audience to the audience of We Love Pop so therefore when Smash Hit’s was closed, there was a gap to fill for the good of this age group. We Love Pop has circulation figures of around 115,000 and it is becoming popular with teenagers. Whether or not the circulation figures are going to rise or fall we don't know, but with the figures being at such a high rate it gives the impression that they will rise.

The typical content of We Love Pop are articles on bands and artists, interviews, features on film, technology, film and beauty.

‘We Love Pop’ is edited by Malcolm Mackenzie, the former music editor of News International’s defunct free newspaper thelondonpaper, and will launch with a print run of 200,000.

The marketing campaign will include point-of-sale activity with retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and WH Smith Travel, advertising on London buses and digital activity on Stardoll, Sugarscape and Vevo.com.

The digital campaign was devised by digital agency Hello World and the outdoor ads were created and bought in house.

The accompanying website (www.welovepopmag.co.uk) will include a rolling news blog, Twitter and Facebook integration and dedicated YouTube channel featuring clips, behind-the-scenes footage, pictures, competitions and downloads.

Advertisers that feature in the first issue of the 68-page magazine include musical label Universal, for its new girl band Wonderland, and online clothing site BooHooSister.com, while boyband The Wanted are advertising on the website.

Mackenzie said: "Pop music and following the antics of pop stars has always been a fundamental part of growing up, but it has seen a real resurgence in the past couple of years.

"With pop domination of the charts, and a host of TV shows like Glee and X Factor feeding the buzz, we believe the time is right to bring the pop world to life for a new generation of teens."

We Love Pop is published by Egmont Publishing. This publishing company publishes children's magazines and children’s books.

On the magazine cover we see colour, happy faces and simple text. There is more images than there is text on the cover, because it is directed at quite a young audience, it is more easy on the eyes. The use of bright colours will attract people to buy this magazine, and the images of happy, smiling celebrities will also intrigue a buyer. The lack of capital letters in cover lines looks relaxed and informal and makes the magazine seem a lot more welcoming. Supplementary images of star, beauty and fashion lure the audience in and pull quotes add a personal feel and an exclusivity as the audience get to know things about their idols. 

We Love Pop aims itself more at a young female audience, with it’s use of girly pictures, stories and free gifts. It appeals to a young female audience by using content such as boyband pull out posters, free girly gifts with the magazine, and bright colours on the front cover. 

The simple, bright cover attracts a young audience because it looks interesting and fun. This is an important element for a successful magazine. 

Their visual style is very bright and colourful, with pictures of celebrities, bubble writing headlines, and bright colours to draw the readers attention in. We Love Pop, have taken into consideration that because it is aimed at such a young audience, the reader; take for example a twelve year old girl; will automatically look at the bold colours, and the main picture on the front. It is vital to include strong imagery and key words because this is what the buyer will see first. From what I know about the media, I know that all of these key elements have been used to connect to the audience. 

Musical interests and favorites include people such as One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Tulisa from N-Dubz and Rihanna. It is important who is placed on the front cover, as they will be a major influence for the reader. So for example, if a celebrity that was always getting into trouble was on the front that wouldn’t set a good example for the young audience reading the magazine. 

The launch price of the magazine was only £1 which for the young target audience with pocket money is inviting and very cheap. However, now the price is at what it was meant to be which is £2.99 which is still manageable for this age group.

There are a lot of females of similar and just older ages used on the covers which can support that the audience is female as the music stars are there to be admired and used for aspiration from the young girls. The celebrities on the front cover will have to be credible

The magazine comes within a plastic packaging, due to the fact that you win something free every  time you buy a magazine. This is another way the publishers of We Love Pop have decided to market their magazine into getting readership, and attracting the audience. 

Egmont Publishing are the publishers for We Love Pop. Egmont Magazines is the UK's second largest children's magazine publisher. They are passionate about children, and are a leading publisher of children’s magazines so they pay particular attention to their readers, whether they’re three-year-olds learning to enjoy their first magazine, or trend-conscious 12-year-olds. 

Egmont was started more than 130 years ago, on 15th May 1878 in Copenhagen. Egmont had developed into the media house it is today and a leading provider of entertainment in Scandinavia with operations in over 21 countries. 

They regularly test their magazines in research sessions with children and their parents, to make sure that their magazines are the best and most engaging titles in the industry. And they firmly believe that by enjoying their magazines, children of all ages are developing vital life skills – in reading, puzzle-solving, and interacting with others.

Many of their magazines star famous brands such as Disney characters, Barbie, and Thomas The Tank Engine and Dora the Explorer. They also publish their own titles for older children, Toxic and Go Girl. They are part of the Egmont Group, a publishing and media organization with activities in 30 countries worldwide.

The children’s magazine market is the 3rd biggest magazine category in the UK by volume, behind women’s weeklies and TV listing magazines. They sell over 12 million magazines every year, and publish over a dozen market leading magazines for children 3-12, both under licence and their own brand. Egmont publishing work with some of the biggest brands in the world including Disney Princess, Barbie and Power Rangers. They dominate the primary girls’ magazine market with over 30% share of the market. They are an online publisher now too with the launch of two websites for kids- www.toxicmag.co.uk for boys 7-12 and www.gogirlmag.co.uk for girls 7-11. 

Last year alone, Egmont Publishing commissioned over 20 research projects and spent time with over 550 children. They spoke first hand to 200 parents and had 5,500 responses to readers survey’s. This shows that they spend a lot of time and money on research in schools, focus groups and reader surveys. It also highlights how they strive for “Unrivalled Consumer Knowledge” and greater insights into their users and choosers. 

We Love Pop isn’t a children’s magazine however, it is aimed at a young teen audience so I found it suprising to find out that it’s publisher specilises with children’s magazines.  

This double page spread from We Love Pop shows a large picture of Cher Lloyd, big enough to cut out which is also indicated by the scissor lines going down the side of the page. She is showing excitement and fun, to make the reader feel happy to be reading this article. She is also looking directly at the reader to make them feel connected and close to the celebrity. The pull quote is eye catching and show’s sarcasm and indicated that the article is going to be funny. It could also show the stars feelings about being made to feel like a bad person, which goes deeper into the article and allows us as an audience to relate to her, so therefore it is an engaging article. This is used because it is supposed to make the readers want to read on and find out what the article is about and the use of bright pink shows how the article is going to be quirky and funny.