ACP Magazines and Pacific Magazines have experienced missteps in the last couple of weeks with gifts being poorly attached to the magazines they were designed to promote. Pacific’s Girlfriend magazine looked damaged in retail shelves when the card carrying the free ring fell from the pages of the magazine. Likewise, the free watch with the latest issue of Dolly is too heavy for the glue used and some are falling out magazines on the shelves.
Production teams at publishers need to ensure that any gift attached to the magazine enhances the offer rather than detracting from it.
Thingies sticking out of the top of mags is a recipe for disaster.
After a day or so they look crap, and displaying them is never a good look.
Yuk.
If publishers are going to use cardboard inserts to hold free gifts above the magazine then that insert needs to run the full height of the magazine (so it sits flat on the shelf with the magazine and doesn’t fall down into the mag because of its weight). The freebie then needs to be attached to either the centre or left hand side of the insert to allow the spine of the magazine to provide it with more stability.