Conde Nast Print Ads to Feature Mobile E-commerce

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Glamour plans to run print ads in March allowing readers to purchase items with a scan of their smart phone, the glossy title tells ClickZ News. The Condé Nast property isn't revealing advertisers for the issue yet, but suggests there's no shortage of interest from brands and retailers.

The upcoming initiative builds on a so-called "social issue" published in September. Teaming with Glamour editorial, the marketing department put together content that pushed the download of a "Friends & Fans" mobile app. The content provided step-by-step details for readers on how to like advertisers on Facebook via the QR code-enabled print ads. The copy highlighted how "liking" brands would lead to exclusive discounts for their products.

The program went well. According to Condé Nast, it produced 512,339 print engagements among a circulation of 2 million readers. Advertisers collected 50,814 Facebook likes through the effort, which included fashion/beauty, retail, CPG, and tech brands. Among them were Gap, Lancome, Skinny Cow, GNC, Land's End, and HTC.

Those brands got a 4 percent response rate to the QR-enabled ads, the magazine said. The September issue used SpyderLynk's SnapTag QR mobile marketing technology.

"Our advertisers were pretty psyched with the results," said Jenny Bowman, creative services director at Glamour. "We were getting so many questions about how [brands] could increase their likes on Facebook, and we wanted to do something digital and cool. There were elements on Twitter and ways to win prizes as well. In the end, we were able to attract 25 advertisers into that issue that wanted to build likes on Facebook."

So Glamour plans to push digital a little further into the page, combining print with social media and mobile commerce. Bowman has dubbed March the "instant gratification issue," while she said that it has drawn interest from around 30 advertisers.