Odette van Wageningen – Mood for Magazines – LINDA.

Odette van Wageningen has been a Brand Manager for over 18 years and as a real brand builder, she has worked for various media brands. After several different roles at LINDA. where she worked on the launch of LINDA.TV, several books and the marketing for LINDA.magazine, she is now responsible for the marketing of LINDA.meiden and Vogue.nl and as a.i at LINDA.

Main KPIs for brand growth

For each brand, we look at different KPIs, says Odette: “For LINDA.meiden, we focus on the growth of individual newsstand sales and subscriptions, reducing the outflow of subscribers and the engagement and interaction with the LINDA.meiden brand on our social media channels. For social media, we pay attention to the growth of the number of followers, but I also manage the engagement on the platforms we use. For Vogue.nl (launched February 14^th 2022 owned now by MFM, the publisher of LINDA.) the most important KPIs are users, sessions, and newsletter opt-ins. And for social media, we use the same metrics as we do for LINDA.meiden.”

“We want consumers to benefit from our content, for them to learn something, to be touched, or just be happy.”

Building a warm relationship

“As a brand, we try to build the warmest possible relationship with our consumers and fans and that can only be done by creating relevant and honest content that suits our target group”, Odette continues. “With LINDA.meiden we often do this with promotions, such as an offer in the stores, or events where we can meet the target group. This also ensures that the editors can publish good interviews in the magazine. This also applies to our covers, because that is what the brand is really about. Based on this, you try to pick and choose things to share with your target group. For the LINDA.meiden Instagram, for example, we carefully plan all the content. Of course, we also have LINDA.meiden.nl, part of the LINDA.nl platform, where we publish numerous stories. Through stories that touch people, we try to get the best possible connection with our consumers. We want them to benefit from us, to learn something, to be touched, or to just be happy.”

‘Baas In Eigen Broekje’

“We are also trying to build certain (social) movements, as with our current issue: ‘’Baas In Eigen Broekje’ (being in charge of your own pants). A strong themed magazine issue that we created together with a guest editor, influencers, and other colleagues. In addition, we all went to the barricades on Dam Square and participated in the Women’s March. In this way, we try to get close to the target group and communicate what we stand for as a brand. Baas In Eigen Broekje is this year’s empowerment issue and during march, we showed that we are fighting for joint consent this year. An important part of this is making a backstage video with the people who are in the magazine and on the cover. This is also a way to properly share our story and show what our mission is as LINDA.meiden.”

Fragmented media landscape

A major obstacle to brand growth is the fragmented media landscape, Odette shares: ”It is becoming more and more difficult to reach your consumers. The media landscape is changing so fast and is so fragmented that social media users use and do a lot of things simultaneously. Besides that, time and streaming platforms are also a big challenge for us particularly. Much of the media consumption goes to those kinds of streaming services. Is someone going to read a good magazine or watch a series? It takes more effort now to convince someone”

Talking about streaming services, Odette finds Netflix to be one of the more creative brands: “They are always looking for creative collaborations with partners and that really appeals to me personally as a marketer. I once worked on a ‘plane launch’ when issue 150 of LINDA was in stores. In cooperation with TUI, we flew 150 fans to Milan. When I think back on it now, I still believe in these kinds of special campaigns and partnerships are very strong, especially when you are directly affecting people or invite them to participate. I also think Bol.com is a great brand and inspiration as they bring a lot of humour in their communication and are very accessible to consumers.”

Hero content

When it comes to short- and long-term goals, Odette shares that no matter the goal, the KPIs are always kept in mind: “Our long-term goals are the stabilisation of print, individual sales and the growth of subscriptions. Per edition, we use a wide set of campaigns so those can be for both short and long term brand growth. We always aim for creativity, taking the brand and KPIs in mind: more subscriptions or creating awareness that there is a new issue in the shop. In doing so, of course, we do try to create some kind of Hero content that in turn automatically and directly brings people to our platform.”

“We create a nice campaign umbrella around all our content and utilise it in different ways for our marketing actions.”

Umbrella of content

Using media as a driver for growth, Odette highlights the need to create good creatives that appeal to the target group but also fit the channel: “That can be radio, owned media, earned media but also our own platform of course. Recently, we have been working a lot with TikTok because we see that the target group is very active there. We are testing what our campaigns do on TikTok and what works, besides Instagram and Facebook. For example, we did two live streams on TikTok. It was just a conversation between two people about the theme of the issue. We don’t produce this content in advance, but we do decide on the message, which people are most suited to have this conversation and fit with the target group. For LINDA.meiden, an interview with a different approach worked better. In this way, we create a nice campaign umbrella around all our content and utilise it in different ways for our marketing actions.

“Even when consumers have become fans, it is important to keep delivering the same quality and keep surprising them.”

What will the future bring?

Odette: “Of course, new platforms will emerge and the younger generation will move on from TikTok to other channels as soon as the older generations catches on. That is just how it always goes, but it also offers opportunities for perhaps a niche or more personalised marketing to reach your target group better. We will have to do this in an increasingly smarter way and create relevant and timely content, as it will otherwise become boring very quickly. I also think that the concept of personalisation is not yet fully developed, although it has been around for quite some time. The same goes for loyalty programmes. It makes you feel like you are part of a club, but still, not many companies are using them. It is also important to keep in mind that even when consumers have become fans of yours, you need to keep delivering the same quality and keep surprising them.”