Dare magazine is what River ad manager Matt Simpson calls “a hybrid.”

Basically it’s Superdrug’s key promotional tool to increase footfall and revenue across its 912 UK stores, but it’s also a lifestyle magazine that carries third party advertising and boasts a whopping free circulation of 750,000 copies.

Up until this month it’s been paid–for-only in Superdrug stores, but from 24 January the model has changed to a free, hand and store distributed title that’s now available in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and London. Liverpool and other regional centres will be following shortly.

The idea is to ramp up awareness of the store’s offers out on the streets (Dare’s paid for ABC prior to January was 271,263 by the way), beat the rest of the market to a mass circulation female free title and therefore steal a march on them when it comes to capturing advertisers.

Posh... and free too. Issue 1

“I don’t know how the men’s titles like Shortlist and Sport can afford to do what they’re doing without the backing of someone like Superdrug,” he commented.

“They’re good magazines, and they are attracting some advertising, but I wonder how well they’re doing in relation to their business plans. It must be costing them an absolute fortune.”

Dare, as he points out, well, it dares to be different.

“We operate as the contract publisher for Superdrug and Dare is key to their marketing. It comes out every four weeks, on a Wednesday, when the stores change their promotional offers, and in that way drives customer footfall.

“But,” he continued, “it offers something to the readers in terms of editorial and isn’t exclusively about Superdrug or full of Superdrug ads.

“We’ve only had one free issue so far, but we managed to attract six or seven third party advertisers and we’re looking to build on that as time progresses.

“We realise that’s not going to be easy, but we have a structure in place that gives us time and we’re already starting to get on the radars of clients and agencies that want a mass female audience. People dealing with clothing brands, mobile phone brands and so on.”

Of the hefty 100 pages bound up in the first issue, 41 pages were filled by ad spots because, as Simpson stressed “we want to give people something to read, where they can cut through the clutter.”

“That’s less of an ad ratio than Cosmo,” he added quickly, proudly, pushing home his clutter-free point.

In terms of regional plans it looks, unfortunately, as if all ad sales will be controlled from London for the time being (unlike Shortlist), but the distribution has a decidedly North West slant.

Of the 750,000 free copies distributed, 500,000 will remain in-store with the rest handed out to commuters and shoppers. Simpson wouldn’t say exactly how many are hitting the streets in Manchester, but he did impart “it’s certainly not as London focused as you might imagine.”

He expanded: “The regional centres are key. In Manchester we have 19 staff handing out the magazine in six locations that are targeted both for numbers and potential footfall into the stores.

“We have people outside Victoria Station, Piccadilly Station, Oxford Road Station, on Cross Street, Princess Street and Market Street.

Shortlist: a harder sale than Dare?

The next issue comes out on 20 February and, if this one doesn’t land in Liverpool, then the city will be seeing their copies very soon afterwards. “We’re taking time to build the distribution,” Simpson said cautiously, “just like the advertising – it’s about awareness and patience.”

Issue two of – what is believed to be, and River claims to be – ‘the UK’s first free women’s monthly magazine’ promises more in the way of editorial and, perhaps, slightly less in the way of overall ad pages.

This is not, our interviewee states, due to problems selling in third parties, but rather because the feedback suggests that 100 pages may be slightly unwieldy for a handed out mag.

“We’re looking at that now,” Simpson ruminated. “We may, possibly, cut it down to 76 pages to make it easier to pick up. But if we do that’ll mean stripping out maybe 13 ad pages, so we’ll still be keeping the ad/editorial ratio in check and cutting through the clutter.”

It's a risky strategy of course, but for Simpson it could well be a case of 'he who Dares wins.'

www.riverltd.co.uk

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