WA Media is launching a new German-language trade magazine for addressing end users in the D-A-CH region: The HAPTICA® Magazin, a symbiosis between Promotion Products and HAPTICA® will be published from 2024 onwards. WA Media’s Chief Editor, Dr. Mischa Delbrouck, and National Sales Director, Jochen Thoma, explained in an interview with eppi why one “can simply achieve more by reaching more readers.”
Dr. Mischa Delbrouck (l) and Jochen Thoma.
Turning two into one: Promotion Products and HAPTICA® are fusing to form the HAPTICA® Magazin in 2024. What are the reasons for condensing the two magazines into one new format?
Dr. Mischa Delbrouck: Whereas Promotion Products was a working tool for promotional products buyers, which they could use to inform themselves about new products, trends and current market happenings, we understood HAPTICA® on the other hand to be a source of inspiration for creative directors and marketing decision-makers that underlined the power of haptic advertising and encouraged them to implement promotional products to a greater extent. However, over the past years we have realised that this ideal-typical separation – procurement and product knowledge on the one side, marketing and creative competence on the other – actually happens less and less in practice today. The users target groups are merging and new target groups are forming. Sales departments, managements and above all personnel departments are taking decisions about the implementation of promotional products.
Last, but not least we are thinking about the needs of the readers, who can get everything from one source in the future: Information and inspiration. HAPTICA® readers, who become impressed by haptic advertising through the contents of the magazine, also want to know where and how they can source the corresponding products and what product ideas the market holds in store. And inversely, the classic buyer also needs to understand that the items that are implemented have to match the brand and sustainability strategy of the promoting companies, which success can be achieved using them and why for example it is so important to take the haptic quality of a product into account when making purchasing decisions.
Jochen Thoma: Based on the feedback of the visitors of the HAPTICA® live or the evaluation of the customer journey on HAPTICA®//ONLINE we know that the mixture between product presentations on the one hand and examples of best practice as well as insights from the marketing practice on the other go down very well with the visitors and users. Insofar, it is only logical that we follow precisely this same approach with our print publications.
“Campaigns & Concepts”: Interviews with decision-makers from renowned brands such as Eintracht Frankfurt, Ford, Fisherman’s Friend, Josera, Pringles and Fendt were formative for HAPTICA® and will also be an essential part of the HAPTICA® Magazin.
The readers benefit from a wider spectrum of information. What advantages arise for the advertisers?
Jochen Thoma: They can simply achieve more by reaching more readers. It is easier for our advertisers because they can concentrate on one brand, which they use for presenting their products and services. And because the editorial environment becomes even more exciting for the readers, the product becomes more relevant so that advertisements have an even greater impact. At the same time, advertisers can reach more with one format, namely different user target groups that are relevant for them. In this way, the HAPTICA® Magazin enfolds double the advertising power.
Dr. Mischa Delbrouck: As a result of the diversity of the contents offered, it is also easier for the advertising customers to pick up on specific themes with their respective communication goals. In Promotion Products they presented their highlights according to different selected product focuses. This will be the case in future too. But beyond this the advertisers can exploit the themes well-known from HAPTICA® more strongly for themselves, i.e. present a fleece jacket suitable for outdoor use in the “Camper target group report”, accompany an interview with the Marketing Director of Eintracht Frankfurt with custom-made designs for a collection of fan items or enhance a knowledge topic like ocean plastic with own product ideas.
Furthermore, synergy effects arise for suppliers, who use our different platforms as a result of the proximity to HAPTICA® live and HAPTICA®//ONLINE. We want to take greater advantage of this in the future.
“Products & Ideas”: As usual with Promotion Products, product highlights and innovations are presented clearly structured in focus topics in a modern and reader-friendly layout.
At WA Media different tools allow the end users to be addressed. Does this go against the interests of the promotional products trade?
Jochen Thoma: On the contrary. Promotional products suppliers need the opportunity to be able to present their products, services and philosophy directly to the end users to generate demand pressure among the suppliers. Companies that place adverts in the HAPTICA® Magazin, are in no way distancing themselves from the traditional sales via the promotional products trade, but on the contrary are providing additional promotional products consulting support.
Dr. Mischa Delbrouck: Incidentally, the trade can also use the platform itself, of course, to gain the attention of the user, whether in the form of an advertisement or an editorial. For instance, we are always on the look-out for good examples of best practice.
What is the content-related structure of the HAPTICA® Magazin?
Dr. Mischa Delbrouck: We have been able to integrate a lot of the popular HAPTICA® and Promotion Products contents into the HAPTICA® Magazin. Essentially the magazine is divided up into three blocks: Under “Campaigns & Concepts” we hold interviews with the marketing directors of famous brands about how major marketing trends are reflected in haptic advertising, carry out target group reports and present many cool cases related to the implementation of promotional products. “Products & Ideas” offers two product-based focuses in each edition as well as the novelty rubric. But portraits on well-known players or young start-ups also appear here. In the rubric “Knowledge & Facts” we want to convey plenty of background know-how, i.e. on sustainability topics, materials or customising technologies, but also provide arguments for the implementation of haptic advertising, examine current surveys on haptics or explain the tax treatment of promotional products. The market and marketing are becoming more and more complex, which is why knowledge transfer is increasingly more important. And here trade publications provide valuable services, because topics can be addressed in far more detail then in online media for instance.
“Knowledge & Facts”: Background reports on sustainability topics such as climate neutrality, individualisation techniques, materials or studies on the effectiveness of haptic advertising provide advertisers with numerous points of reference for their own content.
So print is not dead?
Jochen Thoma: Not at all. We know from surveys that in professional life decision-makers primarily use trade magazines to inform themselves about the market happenings. Print has a more sustainable impact, contents that are conveyed in an analogue manner stick to mind longer than those conveyed in digital media – the latter does have other advantages though. And many of our magazines are passed on and archived, so they have a long-term effect. What is particularly important: One reaches 30,000 recipients directly with an advertisement in the HAPTICA® Magazin. It is very difficult to build up such a database in the double-opt-in era via digital media. We have been making promotional products magazines for end users for almost four decades at our company and have always maintained the data compiled very thoroughly. Our database is thus unique throughout the market.
When will the first edition be published and what topics will it cover?
Dr. Mischa Delbrouck: HAPTICA® Magazin No. 1 will appear on February 7, 2024 as the first of six editions next year. We a covering a wide spectrum of themes: from very tough – the heavy metal fans target group – through to sugar sweet i.e. on the product focus Sweets & Snacks. Summer Season, Novelties of the Year and the big HAPTICA® live preview offer the opportunity for product presentations. We have put together many examples of best practice – among others one about McDonald’s nail polish – but we have also prepared plenty of other exciting themes, which emphasise how powerful haptic advertising is.
Till Barth spoke with Dr. Mischa Delbrouck and Jochen Thoma.
Photo: Jens C. Friedrich, © WA Media
