"Esquire's Big Black Book: An Advertising Party With a Velvet Rope Around It" Esquire magazine, which has struggled for a few years to find a comfortable market niche to call home, is scheduled to launch a new elite coffee-table-book, magazine hybrid, called Esquire's Big Black Book--designed as a luxury style manual for men."
In an interesting twist, Nobody can just advertise. To advertise in the book, marketers had to receive an invitation from Hearst, and each advertiser could purchase only one of the 74 ad pages. Advertising Age reports that all 74 have been sold to advertisers which include Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Bombardier, IWC Watches, Hugo Boss and Louis Vuitton.
Our Current Top Luxury Publications
(1). Luxury Spa Finder
(2). Harper's Bazaar
(3). Robb Report
(4). Vanity Fair
(5). Visionaire
(6). Genlux
Esquire's Big Black Book will sell for $9.95 and have a distribution of 100,000, compared to a rate base of 700,000 for the magazine. Barnes and Noble is the magazine's biggest newsstand partner. The plan is to roll the new project out slowly, with the publication working its way up to twice-a-year distribution -- in the future, it could be released quarterly. Teaser ads have run in recent Esquire issues to market the new product, and a partnership with msn.com's lifestyle section will make editorial available on the site.
The publication is designed as a style manual for "the successful modern man". With more editorial than most magazines, no celebrities on the cover and no advertising on the back, the Big Black Book offers style tips and useful information for the modern gentleman, such as etiquettes of lateness and how to write the perfect thank-you note, as well as stories and histories on luxury brands.
Posted by Steven Hultgren on October 1, 2006 7:41 PM
| Permalink
