I love magazines. Although the industry as a whole model is busted, as titles are folding, advertising revenue is plummeting, and wholesalers are in lawsuits, while they are going out of business. Even before the recession hit, unsold copies (which are the majority of them) end up getting destroyed. On the bright side of things, Cunning and teamed up with HSBC to give travelers in Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 1 customized magazines. Passers-by had the ability to select content from 32 commissioned articles, get them bound, and take their personally curated magazine onto their flight with them. Of course, the next step is to have the printing done by something like Espresso Book Machine.
Via the fine folks at PSFK.
Ray,
So here I am now working at an experiential advertising agency, and here you are writing about Cunning’s experiential program for HSBC. I have to say, I don’t really like it for HSBC, but as an idea for any number of other kinds of clients, it makes a lot of sense.
Mark
Hi Mark,
We need to catch up on what you’re up to, but I agree that I’m not sure how aligned this idea is to HSBC. However, banks tend to advertise at a lot of things that are not always aligned to their business directly, sporting events and the such. What do you think the messaging was? But I agree that it is a very good and timely and relevant concept, and it made me stop and think about HSBC, which does say something.