New Teen Titles Launch
Both Emap and Natmags have launched their long-awaited teen offerings, Cosmo Girl! and Elle Girl this week, into a market which had more teenage kicking than teenage kicks in the last ABCs (see Newsline), when market leader, Attic Futura’s Sugar saw year on year decrease in circulation of over 11%, in line with the sector as a whole.
The similarity in the new magazines’ titles is more than skin deep, as it appears that, despite the ostentatious mystery surrounding the new offerings, they bear more similarity to one another than they do to their big sister titles, Cosmopolitan and Elle.
Both went for acid colours on the covers (pink and green for Cosmo, pink and orange for Elle) and both featured teenage popstars for cover models. Inside, both featured good luck messages from celebrities and chose to divide content into five sections. For Cosmo these were: Shopgirl!, Inner Girl!, Cosmo Boy!, Style Girl! and Girl on the Go! For Elle: Girl Talk, Star Girl, Real Girl, Pretty Girl and Girl World.
Beyond this, the titles have marked their different approaches. Elle Girl, planned as a quarterly and priced at £2.20, uses the slogan “For Girls Who Love To Shop”. Clearly gunning for the tweenage/teenage market with the fabled combination of more disposable income than ever before and pester power (see Feature: Survey Charts Rise Of ‘Tweenagers’ With Increased Spending Power), content is heavily consumer oriented fashion and beauty, in some cases sourced from the upper end of the high street.
Cosmo Girl, perhaps surprisingly given the raunchy reputation of Cosmopolitan, has its fair share of shopping and beauty, but appears to be aiming for a younger audience. Priced at £1.49, the monthly takes a more responsible approach with issues-based editorial such as true life story about racism and a feature on text-message bullies. With the addition of a problem page and pin ups, it bears more of a resemblance to the original Just Seventeen format.
Despite these differences, the titles have attracted similar advertisers. Among the bigger names in both were Ralph Lauren and Tommy Girl. High street fashion chain H&M advertised in both, as did a range of the cheaper end cosmetics and beauty brands, aiming for the pocket money spend.
Both magazines launched with gifts of free stickers. Elle Girl also included a cover-mounted vest top. CosmoGirl! has an accompanying website, www.cosmogirl.co.uk, which reproduces some of the magazine’s content, but also includes more interactive features and message boards.
Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk National Magazine Company: 0207 439 5000 www.natmags.co.uk
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