Celebs on Sunday

Celebrity magazines are the cultural phenomenon of the Noughties and a clutch of new weekly titles have changed the face of magazine publishing.

National newspaper groups have been quick to respond to this trend and have developed their own celebrity magazine supplements. However, these supplements have stayed very much in the ad-sales shadow of their paid-for rivals. A key reason for this is a belief that reader impact and engagement is far greater with paid-for titles.

The Sunday Mirror wanted to investigate this perception and commissioned Other lines of enquiry to delve deeper into the relationship between 'Celebs on Sunday' magazine and its readers.

Plan

Other lines of enquiry designed a project to answer the following crucial questions:

• How do people perceive the look, feel and editorial content of free celebrity supplements compared to paid-for titles?
• Does 'Celebs on Sunday' have a reader relationship that is comparable to paid-for titles?

We designed a high-tech, mixed methodology project with two phases:

1) A 'taste test challenge' run online with 800 respondents. We debranded a range of magazine spreads and covers and asked questions to gauge perceptions of the look, feel and editorial content for 'Celebs on Sunday' and five paid-for rivals.

2) An ethnographic study of four readers who wore our 'X-Ray Spex' technology on a Sunday morning to give us a privileged insight into this key reading occasion.

Results

We expected to find a perception gap between 'Celebs on Sunday' and the paid-for competition that was wider than a country mile. But in almost every respect – including interest, fun, fashion and entertainment – 'Celebs' was rated the equal of paid-for titles.

Case notes

"We saw an opportunity to reposition the ad community’s perception of ‘Celebs on Sunday’ by exploring its relationship to paid-for weekly gossip titles. We chose Other lines of enquiry to undertake this project because of their well-known expertise in magazine publishing. The taste-test challenge concept worked really well and revealed the in-depth relationship readers have with ‘Celebs’. This work has been well received by advertising clients and is helping us drive new revenues for 'Celebs on Sunday'."

Head of Magazines, MGN Advertising