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Do publishers need to revise the value of the freebie? It seems so, discovers Caitlin Fitzsimmons
If you walk into any newsagent in the UK and browse the magazine rack, your final choice might be based as much on the free gift as the publication itself.
These days, it is pretty much a given that when you buy a magazine you will also take home a free pair of flip-flops, or a bag, t-shirt, scarf, sunglasses, lipstick, book, CD, DVD, toy or chocolate bar.
The fact is that publishers have become addicted to covermounting. A free gift on the cover of the magazine once provided a genuine sales uplift, but in many sectors it is now a must-do just to prevent sales from falling.
With so much competition from other magazines and newspapers, publishers can find it difficult to stand out.
"It's like an arms race - publishers think 'competitors are doing it, so we have to as well'," says Andrew Smales, managing director of Covermounts.com.
Appropriate gifts
Meanwhile, advertisers and media agencies are becoming increasingly cynical about the value of covermount-induced circulation gains.
Dan Pimm, head of press for media agency Universal McCann, says many covermounts are "quite tacky" and don't fit with the publication's brand image the classic example being a pair of "really cheap and quite poor" sunglasses on the covers of GQ and Tatler a few years ago.
He says that some recent covermounts, such as an umbrella on Eve, a bag on Marie Claire and a designer T-shirt on In Style, have been quite good.
"A good covermount is something that adds value for readers and has an affinity with the magazine, so that you're not attracting a audience that would buy for the gift and throw away the magazine," Pimm says, adding that he'd prefer more value through extra...