DARE’s Editorial Director Jo Hoare tells us what made DARE’s Summer Special an outstanding success and why we’re expecting the same with DARE Fit & Healthy.
While the overall newsstand market fell by 5.5% between July and September 2018, the Women’s health and beauty sector remained strong. In fact, other than crafts and needlecraft, it was the only sector to show an increase – up 17.3%.
The sell-out success of the first newsstand DARE, 2018’s Summer Special, proved there was still an appetite for print – you just have to crack the formula. We went into Fit & Healthy with a clear idea of what worked and how to build on it – and knew we’d hit the jackpot when it flew off the shelves.
That formula was cover star of the moment + customer relevant samples + a fun but trustworthy tone of voice that mirrored Superdrug’s big-sister stance on beauty and wellness. This was packaged up with a low-cost but high-impact publicity campaign across Instagram and Instagram Stories.
For Fit & Healthy, Ferne McCann was an obvious cover star choice: 2.2 million Instagram followers; a new mum; her own ITV2 show, plus she was about to launch a fitness DVD that would become a best-seller.
It was important we took a fresh approach to a fitness title. No unobtainable six-packs, expensive and complicated diets or impossible-to-keep-up routines. Instead, this was wellness and health through a beauty lover’s eyes: fashion that would work as well for a Sunday sofa session as it would 60 minutes of spin; sporty-inspired makeup that’d fake a gym glow when the most exercise you’d done all day was blow-dry your hair (definitely cardio, right?) and real-life stories from funny, witty contributors about how they’d made fitness.
All of this brilliant editorial is backed up by an amazing bundle of on-brand samples worth over £12 on newsstands, and £20 in WHSmith, which are bagged with the magazine, making it an out-and-out winner!
DARE Fit & Healthy is out now.