Budget Living Begins Cracking Print Ad Budgets

When Budget Living launched last October, readers quickly warmed to the magazine's "spend smart, live rich" motif. The publication, it seemed, struck the right balance of thrift and glamour for the lean early years of the 21st Century. It became an immediate hit, with newsstand sell-through rates reaching 80% at chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders.

Advertisers, however, reserved immediate judgment, largely due to the magazine's title. "Budget," in their minds, implied cheap and tacky, not sensible and savvy. Never mind that Budget Living, with its oversize format and high-grade paper stock, is about as far removed from the bargain bin as a Herve Chapelier handbag - marketers took a wait-and-see approach to parceling out ad dollars to the new kid on the lifestyle-mag block.

"Even now, we still encounter some of that," shrugs sales development director Maryellen Case. "A company like Armani Exchange, for instance, is a perfect fit for us in terms of style and price point, but their strategy is to market themselves high."

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Fortunately for Budget Living, nearly a year after its heralded launch such companies are distinctly in the minority. The latest brainchild of publishing guru Don Welsh, Budget Living has clearly tapped into the zeitgeist. "Right now, it's stylish to be smart with your money," Case says. "You hear people bragging about their deals - 'I got this for 20 bucks at H&M.' Back in the 1980s, it was 'look at my new Rolex.'"

Which isn't to say, of course, that Budget Living is shunning the Rolexes and Kenneth Coles of the world for ads. Indeed, the magazine isn't about being cheap so much as it is about getting good value ("you know, an IKEA table with a Tiffany vase on it," Case quips). And in recent months, that proposition has proven quite popular with advertisers in a range of categories.

Travel is surprisingly strong, perhaps owing in part to Welsh's continued association with newsstand giant Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, and the magazine has done very well with retailers like Home Depot and Target. "They have the same selling proposition that we do," Case chirps. "Costco never advertises anywhere, but they've come in with us."

There are challenges from a marketing perspective, of course. Given their editorial prominence in the magazine, fashion and beauty companies seem somewhat underrepresented ad-wise. "They're hard categories to break," Case admits. "That's the one area where we still hear about the 'Budget' name thing."

Given Budget Living's growth, it probably won't be too long before fashionistas find their way into the magazine. Though the publication doesn't yet have its audited MRI and BPA numbers, Case says it is "definitely overdelivering" on its rate base of 400,000. "We're printing 600,000 copies and we have 350,000 subscribers, plus our sell-through is very high," she notes, adding that the circ will jump to 450,000 with the February 2003 issue and 500,000 in October 2004. "To be honest, we're probably pretty close to 500,000 right now." The October 2004 issue will also see a frequency increase, to ten times per year.

Equally important to Case is building the Budget Living brand. The mag has a deal on the table with Penguin Books and is exploring the possibility of a television tie-in. "I think a Budget Living Senior could work," she adds. "We're supposedly just this little renegade publishing company, but there's a lot of interest."

A key step in the brand-extension strategy will take place in January, when the magazine sponsors an all-encompassing "Flip Side" weekend in Aspen, Colorado. The partnership with Aspen/Snowmass includes an advertorial in the December 2003/January 2004 issue of the magazine, Internet ads and a discount weekend package for readers. And, of course, there will be a host of sponsorship opportunities for advertisers (a pub crawl and a financial seminar are likely to be among the higher-profile ones).

The idea for the Flip Side weekend came about during one of Case's trips to Aspen. "I didn't know what to expect, but I'd heard they were looking for a way to reach a younger audience," she recalls. "They're not looking to move away from their posh brand image, but at the same time given the economy and post-9/11, they realize they have to compliment that brand with a more affordable, hipper version of what Aspen is."

So far, Case says advertisers and readers have responded enthusiastically to the plans. If the weekend succeeds to the extent that Budget Living thinks it will, a second Flip Side weekend will likely be scheduled for next summer.

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