Facebook moves into print with launch of new magazine

Social Media giant Facebook has moved into print for the first time, launching a new quarterly magazine aimed at reaching “business leaders”.

Grow by Facebook was launched in the UK under the slogan: “Grow your business. Grow your network. Grow your mind.”

The magazine (Sorry, they want to call it a “marketing product”, even though it says “magazine” on the cover) features interviews with leading business figures. It’s part of a larger programme that “started life as a small event in the English countryside three and a half years ago.”

Facebook continues: “The traditional brands and disruptive newcomers, creators and creatives that we are privileged to work with every day were increasingly asking us to connect the dots between them. Grow by Facebook’s ambition is to help business leaders keep ahead by creating and curating insightful content and experiences.”

The printed product has been sent directly to marketing clients and distributed in selected airport and train business lounges. On the Grow page, Facebook acknowledge that print is effective in reaching their particular audience: “The program is designed to deliver content in different formats that suit our audience. We know that business leaders have limited time for long reads at work, so we’ve also created a physical version with journeys in mind.”

When the world’s biggest social media platform wants to associate its brand with credibility, it launches a print magazine w/ massive display bookshelves at LHR first class lounge. But wait! isn’t print dead? Didn’t Facebook kill it off? #facebook #fipp #wanifra #print #inma pic.twitter.com/OqwFI9Cz9R

— JuanSenor-Innovation (@JuanSenor) June 3, 2018

There is so much evidence to support the fact that a good piece of print has the power to engage consumers at a very deep level. It’s a different experience entirely from digital media, which is increasingly becoming a tarnished channel for advertisers.

Let the statistics speak for themselves.

• 36% of recipients bought or ordered something as a result of receiving direct mail¹
• 81% people have bought an item or visited a place after reading about it in a magazine²
• Newspaper ads are viewed 2.5 times longer than the average digital ad³
• Touching an ad increases its value by 24%⁴

It’s surprising that Facebook has taken so long to reach the conclusion that, if they want to make an impact, they’d better choose print.

Sources via printpower.eu

[1] Touchpoints 7, 2016

[2] Magnetic, Rules of Attraction, 2015

[3] Lumen, 2017

[4] Journal of Consumer Research 2009,Touchpoints 5, 2014

Photo credit: Credit Juan Señor, INNOVATION Media Consulting

Using aspects of an article by Two Sides, which can be read in full here.