Bloomberg Markets magazine relaunch attracts more high-end print advertisers

Bloomberg Markets magazine, the home to print ads from some of the most well-known luxury brands, has relaunched with the release of its November 2010 issue, the largest in the magazine’s 18-year history.

The magazine sold 120 ad pages for its latest issue, up 30 percent for 2010. Ad pages are up 22.5 percent this year, 490 pages versus 400, through the October 2010 issue. Luxury brands that are advertising include Cartier, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.

"We have a brand-awareness issue outside our core advertising category of financial-services companies, so we are eager to grow and expand our advertising base," says Michael Dukmejian, publisher of Bloomberg Markets Magazine, New York. “In today’s media world, you have to be targeted and have a relatively unique audience to succeed.”

“Our [readers] are at the terminal 8.5 hours a day, 5.1 days a week,” he said. “It’s not a commercial environment.”

“When they are home, they are not consuming media, they are with their kids. They’re an elusive target.”

Elite marketing
Bloomberg Markets claims to be the only magazine that targets the global financial elite. Its readers are about 88 percent male with a median age of 37 and high household income and net worth.

Bloomberg Markets was redesigned by Robert Priest and Grace Lee of Priest & Grace.

The redesign includes new personal wealth and careers sections as requested and makes the magazine more clear, accessible and recognizable for the reader. The November relaunch is accompanied by a digital and global ad campaign, which broke on Sept. 27.

Despite the current economic situation, Bloomberg Markets has initiated a rate base jump from 315,000 to 355,000 at the end of this year. It claims that no other business magazine is raising their rate base, nor have they done so in a long time.

In May, it raised its cover price from $4.95 to $5.99 and increased subscriptions from $19.95 to $29.95 in January.

A slew of new advertisers signed on with Bloomberg Markets through the October 2010 issue, including Cartier, Hyundai Equus, Scotia Capital, RBC Capital Markets, Blancpain, Netjets, Vale, Glenlivet, Agence France Tresor, Porsche, Acura, Mercedes-Benz, BlackRock, Mutual of America, Intercontinental Exchange, Nikkei, Sprint, GE Capital, FEMSA, Parmigiani, Singapore Airlines, Flexjet and BNY Mellon.

In addition to its rebranding, Bloomberg Markets is also expanding its focus on Europe.

It has increased its European sales team and hired new global distributors to ensure that the magazine is delivered on time internationally.

The magazine claims to have second highest business magazine circulation in Europe, behind the Economist. Sixty percent of its readership lies outside of the U.S., with Britain being its second largest market.

“This is really [marketed to] the top of the food chain,” Mr. Dukmejian said.