There I was standing at the lineup as I held a few design books in one hand and flipping through a magazine that had pictures of Jessica Alba with the other. As the person ahead of me moves forward, I noticed the distinguishing face of Bill Gates piercing the depths of my soul. That’s when i realized it was a magazine. Not just any magazine by the way, it was MACLEAN’S magazine. The only thing different though, was that it was in a completely different format. It read, “MACLEAN’S THE RETHINK ISSUE”. I had to purchase it.
On my way home, I was reading through it. I was very engaged as this particular issue solely revolved around, as the subhead puts it, “The people and ideas that are changing the world”. FASCINATING content. But what I found even more fascinating was the fact that GM Motors paid for EVERY advertising space in this magazine. I did further investigation into this and found that, MACLEAN’S was trying a new magazine format and a new look for this month as a precursor to the launch of their up coming iPad app. They’re Rethinking the way their brand operates, so why not Rethink the way it looks?
So what does General Motors have to do with this? According to Marketing Magazine, GM wants the public to rethink their brand. On behalf of General Motors, agency M2 Universal prepared this full-magazine campaign that had only GM-branded advertising. From Chevrolets to Cadillacs, MACLEAN’S “Rethink” issue now not only demonstrates how people and ideas are changing the world, but it sells GM’s brand as rethinking the way of the motor vehicle. The campaign displays GM’s popular selections of vehicles, selling them based on their unique traits. Not to mention, this campaign also took into consideration digital media, such as the use of QR codes and social media.
This is the first time I’ve seen a campaign take full coverage of a magazine and I must say, I’m impressed at the strategy behind it and the overall campaign itself.
To read more, you can check out Marketing Magazine’s article:GM GETS SIDEWAYS IN LATEST ISSUE OF MACLEAN’S
