General Motors of Canada has bought issue-wide ad domination of the latest issue of Maclean’s, its “Rethink” issue that turns the standard magazine format on its head. Well, on its side.
The Sept. 27 issue hit newsstands this morning with a design unique for the newsweekly–a sideways or “landscape” orientation that makes it wider than it is tall.
The back cover, both inside covers, indeed every ad inside is for GM brands.
“General Motors wants the public to rethink its brand, so we pitched this to them and it seemed to work right away,” said Julie Osborne, senior associate publisher. “They latched on to it right away and from then on we treated the issue as being sold out.”
Kevin Williams, president and managing director of General Motors of Canada, picks up this sentiment in an advertorial note to readers found on the inside cover: “GM is a changed, and changing, company,” he wrote. “As you read through this edition of Maclean’s, I hope you get a better sense of our new direction.”
Editorial includes articles on innovation in business, sports, politics and science, including an interview with Bill Gates on fixing public education, and another on why a trip to Mars could happen sooner than many realize.
Osborne would not provide dollar figures for the ad package, but did say revenues allowed for a slightly larger-than-normal issue of 84 pages.
Aside from standard magazine single- and double-page spreads, Maclean’s created a handful of unique ad opportunities in the form of a narrow ribbon space that runs along the bottom of several consecutive pages mid-magazine.
Every ad also has a unique QR code that allows readers to access additional information about GM products through a QR-enabled cellphone.
One ad looks as though half a page has been torn out of the magazine, leaving only the QR code behind to tell readers about the missing product–the 2011 CTS Coupe.
“It’s a Cadillac that looks so darn good the ad has been ripped out,” Osborne explained.
M2 Universal arranged the unique print package on behalf of GM.
The sideways design was the result of experimentation with the magazine’s iPad app, which is in development.
“When you move an iPad from portrait to landscape, the [content layout] reconfigures,” Osborne said. “That set some imaginations to work.”
