Copycat starting to lure advertisers

COPYCAT, Brunei's first and only free tech-lifestyle magazine, is finally gaining the interest of advertisers after a year of publication.

The quarterly magazine, published by CSG Marketing, costs more than $15,000 to publish per issue and the Copycat's manager, Teo Ping Ying, said, adding that there are times they could not get enough advertisers.

"Sometimes we barely break-even or we maybe we might not," Teo admitted but was positive of the magazine's outlook.

The magazine's editor, Hazel Tan, said however that after one year the magazine is finally getting inquiries from advertisers. "We know for sure we have 10,000 readers because that's the number of copies we print per publication but, people who advertise are limited, usually the same people are putting out ads," Teo said.

Advertising firm CSG Marketing does play a role in giving advertisers more confidence. "As an advertising agency, they can look at our collateral and see what we have done for other companies. They can view our quality and based on what we've done in the past for the magazine, it is our marketing tool and because of that, clients are willing to put in their marketing dollars," Teo said.

Sometimes, he added, clients want to test the market with the magazine through discount vouchers and will provide feedback after how many were used or whichever format is more suitable.

Teo said that everything comes down to budget so they have to try to convince people to try new things and so far they have had a few advertisers who have come back for more.

Tan said the challenge is that most Bruneians do not want to advertise as a lot of people rely on word-of-mouth given Brunei is a small country. "As mentioned previously, we are still fairly new and the confidence is not there yet but more and more people are interested which is good," she said.

"For those who do advertise, Copycat will then write for them and do the artwork so our writers like Tan have to be well-versed with the topic to be able to carry that out," said Teo, adding that their advertisements range from $280 to $2,500.

The magazine's target audience falls within the age group of 18-30, Tan said. This group tend to spend more than the more conservative older market segment; therefore, the magazine's style of writing is geared towards them. "Also, it is a good opportunity to gain more exposure because the younger Bruneians have that spending power so that can be the selling point for advertisers," said Tan.

Teo said the magazine's objective was to serve the community with some social responsibility involved.

"It lets youth understand what's happening around the country and around us. We are also providing some social awareness with articles on Pusat Ehsan. Besides that, we promote a healthy lifestyle (by) encouraging exercises, classes and so on," Teo said.

In certain aspects, he added, social responsibilities outweigh the monetary factor.

Copycat is distributed in cafes, schools, universities and some government institutions where the 18-30 age target group "hang out".

Apart from strategic distribution, the team hopes to grab the attention of this technologically-savvy group by paying particular attention to the magazine's cover, font size, type-face and paper quality. Tan said Copycat is also a platform for the local music industry to highlight Bruneian artists. By featuring these youth icons on the magazine's front cover, the magazine also provides exposure for these role models to further their careers.

They initially started off focusing on gadgets, but Tan said some of their readers were asking for more social events, so the magazine decided to increase the number of lifestyle articles.

In regards to increasing the frequency of publication, Tan said that would depend on several factors such as increasing readership and advertising revenue.

Her small team, which consists of just three to four people, already finds it challenging to produce a quarterly magazine. Therefore, she does not see the possibility of increasing the number of issues per year until the company increases its revenue through advertising.

Tan remains optimistic, however, and believes "it will pick up" in the near future. The Brunei Times