Ignite's competitive streak thrives in toughest market
Men's leisure and lifestyle is one of the most dynamic and competitive areas of UK publishing. Yet ground breaking men's weekly Nuts has extended its lead over rival Zoo to a record 91,047 copies a week. Nuts now accounts for 60.1% of the men's weekly sector and 46.5% of total newsstand men's sector sales.
Not settling just for that, Nuts continues to extend its brand reach through strong multi-platform growth. The period saw the launch of NutsTV on Freeview channel 42 and an evolving mobile offering.
Nuts' ABC Group Product Report – published today – reveals meteoric growth for www.nuts.co.uk, up 50% from its previous ABCe audit. The new audit for November 2007 shows a figure of 945,790 unique users for the site, up by 314,323 from 631,467 in June.
www.loaded.co.uk has also delivered superlative growth, up 49% in its ABCe audit, published today as part of the brand's Group Product Report. The site reveals a figure of 308,442 unique users in November 2007, up by 101,490 from 206,952 in June.
Elsewhere, Loaded magazine has performed well on the period, stemming the negative sales trend, in line with the other mainstream men's monthlies. Loaded delivers an ABC of 115,065, down 4.5% on the period. The title also continues to perform strongly at the UK newsstand, outselling GQ by over 17,000 copies and Maxim by 39,000 copies every month.
IPC Ignite managing director Eric Fuller adds: “This round of circulation figures illustrates that, by volume, IPC Ignite now sells more than half of all men's lifestyle magazines on the UK newsstand. And between them, the Nuts and Loaded websites now reach well over one million unique users every month”.
In the music sector, iconic rock weekly NME posted an ABC of 64,033, down on the period but gaining market share over rival weekly, Kerrang!
The second ABCe from NME.COM of 1,824,038 unique users is up 8% from the previous ABCe of 1,693,196. The site, which has earned worldwide respect for its unrivalled news and events coverage, continues to innovate and excite, picking up the BT Digital Music Award in October 2007, when it was named Best Music Magazine for the second year in a row.
Paul Cheal, Ignite Publishing Director says: “Through a combination of print, digital, TV and live activity, we estimate that the NME brand now reaches out to more than one million people every week.”
And it's not just the youth audience who are driving performance. Music and movies monthly Uncut delivered an outstanding ABC of 91,028, up 6% on the period.
Successful promotions in the period included a bumper boxed August issue, celebrating the magazine's 10th birthday, and lauding the life and times of Bob Dylan. This was followed by another boxed issue for its special all-star end of year extravaganza.
Uncut was also at the heart of the festival season in 2007, sponsoring the inaugural Knowsley Hall Music Festival and partnering Mean Fiddler for the Latitude festival, which it will continue to support in 2008.
Eric adds: “Ignite's music brands are extending their reach across multiple platforms, following their audiences and delivering the music experiences they want, when they want them. With more innovation planned in the next few months, there will be no let up in our cross-platform growth.”
