H Bauer Launches Cut With Major Advertising Campaign
German magazine publisher H Bauer finally ended speculation about its high-profile entry into the fledgling men’s weekly market last week with the launch of its much anticipated Cut magazine.
The title aims to provide men with ‘all the stuff that is worth knowing’ by dissecting the most amusing and interesting articles from the week’s newspapers. The magazine has a target audience of 20 to 35 year old men and aims to differentiate itself from existing titles by positioning itself as a comical readers digest in the familiar ‘boobs and booze’ format.
Commenting on the launch, a spokesman for H Bauer said: “Cut‘s unique proposition is obvious in a marketplace dominated by girls. We believe that we are offering a real point of difference to the reader, and subsequently an opportunity to introduce male readers into the excitement of the weekly market and growing the market should be a benefit to us all.”
The title launches with a low cover price of 50p, which will double to a normal cover price of £1 within the next few weeks. The magazine is being backed with an extensive television advertising campaign, airing on cable and satellite services.
The campaign, which has been created by Neame Ingram and Paul Westmoreland, centres on the strapline ‘Cut magazine – Just the important stuff’ and features men learning how to order lager in Spanish, as well as a dating agency which lists women by their bra size only.
Last week the latest consumer ABC results for the six months to June 2004 showed that the multimillion launch of weekly rivals Nuts and Zoo has sent shockwaves through the burgeoning men’s lifestyle magazine sector.
Debut circulation figures for both titles show that IPC’s Nuts has entered the sector in the number two spot just below market leading FHM, with an average weekly circulation of 290,337. This puts the title someway ahead of Emap’s Zoo, which recorded initial copy sales of 200,125 during the same period (see ABC Results Jan-Jun 2004: Men’s Weeklies Make Their Mark).
The fledgling sector looks set to become increasingly crowded over the coming weeks with news that Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers is planning the launch of a new title provisionally called KO!. The magazine is scheduled for an autumn launch with the strapline ‘A knock-out read for men’ (see Desmond To Knock Out Competition In Men’s Weekly Market).
H Bauer Publishing: 020 7241 8000 www.bauer.co.uk
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