www.thomascook.com teams with Ceros for industry first

First fully interactive travel magazine launched today

London – July 22, 2008, Ceros, the leading online magazine publishing platform, today announced the launch of Thomas Cook Holiday Hotspots, the travel industry’s first fully interactive holiday magazine. A link will be emailed to the full Thomas Cook database, inviting them to click through to the magazine. Incorporating interactive elements and exclusive video clips taken from Thomas Cook TV, readers can browse and select destinations, enter competitions and even book holidays directly from within the magazine.

“Holiday Hotspots is a travel industry first,” said Ceros Co-Founder, Dominic Duffy. “Whilst there have been many flavours of online travel magazines, they’ve all been a variation on a common theme: the printed brochure. Holiday Hotspots is the first to be designed specifically to exist online. As a result, it draws upon the truly interactive quality of the Web and delivers a truly engaging experience.”

Russell Gould, director of e-commerce at Thomas Cook, said: “The launch of Thomas Cook Holiday Hotspots is a ground-breaking initiative that creates another avenue through which we are able to communicate with our customers. With thousands of hours of footage incorporated into the magazine, it contains a vast wealth of up-to-the minute useful destination information presented in an accessible format.

Click Here to take a look!

PPA Teams up with Ceros

10 Jul 2008, Toby Hicks, Periodical Publishers Association

In a groundbreaking move, PPA has teamed up with Ceros to produce the UK publishing industry’s first annual review as a fully integrated digital edition.

Using the Ceros technology, PPA has transformed its print annual review 2007/08 into a Ceros digital edition, including video footage, graphs, additional text, hyperlinks and rotating images, enhancing the print product previously created.

Ceros’ technology acts as another layer on the print design using the original Indesign files, not as a website or as a separate edition. Having launched PPAtv in 2007, a video channel online featuring interviews, conference footage and promotional videos, PPA has been able to update the annual review to include filmed footage, highlighting the key work of the association.

Although members received the print edition some months ago, by delaying the digital edition till the Summer, PPA was able to add some key additional information such as new research showing the size of the business media market place. In showcasing a new technology PPA has reflected the moves made by many of its members, providing content in both a print and digital format.

According to PPA membership director Jane Salliss: “Members have told us they would like to receive information in different ways. This is why PPA took the decision to provide its annual review in a print and digital format. The updated edition has, through video content and live moving graphs, enabled us to provide members with an update of important developments in a fully integrated product”

According to Dominic Duffy, group marketing director of Fresh Media Group: “As the champions of the UK magazine industry, the PPA have long been advocates of the inherently engaging qualities and editorial values of the magazine format. In producing the industry's first integrated annual report, they have not only showcased engagement but provided interaction and live dialogue as well."

PPA's annual review is a finalist for a Trade Association Forum award for best practice, which will be announced on Thursday, 25 July.

Details from Toby Hicks at PPA on 020 7400 7528.

Ceros proves an ad winner

Wilkinson Sword's Ceros campaign proves a winner

by Amy Parker Media Week 01-Jul-08, 07:30

Challenge: To tackle consumer perceptions that disposable razors compromise quality of shave.

Client: Wilkinson Sword

Agency: Mediaedge:cia

Planner: Amy Parker

Previous work showed us that once men try Xtreme 3, they often adopt it as their brand of choice. We needed to encourage use among our target audience of male students via sampling.

As a challenger brand, we needed to couple a mass sampling drive with a powerful communications strategy.

During planning, Dennis Publishing was preparing to launch Monkey, the UK's first online interactive male magazine, and it proved to be a perfect fit.

Strategy
To find "Britain's Most Xtreme Shaver", while pushing samples to the key audience.

The goal was to make consumers interact creatively and demonstrate Xtreme 3's benefits. We provided potential consumers with a razor and an online community. Working with a forward-thinking media owner allowed us to create an innovative online campaign, focused around user-generated content.

Activity
The competition ran over 11 weeks, appearing in Monkey as a rich media DPS and on a dedicated microsite. It was kick-started with a call for free sample requests. Over seven weeks, readers sent in videos of their funniest, most bizarre, shaving experiences to try and win weekly prizes and a place in the final. The winning eight videos were put up for public voting to win either a cash prize, a holiday, or the accolade of "Britain's Most Xtreme Shaver".

Results
Wilkinson Sword had some great editorial content on Monkey, while video entries demonstrated brand engagement. In one week, 69,000 votes were cast for the winning entry, with 186,000 votes collected overall.

Our post-campaign research (with Monkey) showed that 75% of users felt the brand fitted the magazine, while 65% enjoyed interacting with the feature and 19% (19,000 users) bought the razor after receiving their sample. Wilkinson Sword had a 23% sales uplift during the campaign, reclaiming the number two spot in the disposable razor market.

Amy Parker, Communications manager, Mediaedge:cia

Read the full article here

Haymarket Ceros title wins award

At last nights Quality in Print awards, The Haymarket Medical Media team were awarded Cross-media Initiative of the Year for their Ceros version of the Mims Cardiovascular Digital Supplement. Congratulations to the team!

Talksport goes live with Ceros!

With 2.5 million listeners, talk radio station Talksport looks set to establish itself as not only as a leading publisher of radio content, but a magazine publisher as well. The Talksport Magazine, launched on the 3rd July, has already proven a hit with readers - with massive open rates on the first day of launch.