Hot Pink Magazine is the online lifestyle publication from toiletries brand Miss Cole, part of the Grace Cole group. Its audience is female, aged from mid-teens to early 20s, and since autumn 2010 I have written a number of features for the magazine.My main written contribution each month is a What's On guide to the latest television, music, cinema and DVD releases - drawing on the information I have access to through my other project, POPSICULTURE. But I've provided other content too, including a behind-the-scenes report from London Fashion Week about a Miss Cole-sponsored catwalk show.
The Features
Writing for Hot Pink has been an unexpected pleasure - for the most part they've trusted me to make the decisions about what I write about and what I say, with a couple of slight tweaks to make things fit their target audience. As a mid to late-20s male, writing for a teenage female audience has given my tone of voice skills a welcome workout.
The nature of the project - a Flash-based virtual magazine that doesn't need to be massively search visible - also has its own impact on the text I produce, as there's absolutely no SEO considerations. Strangely, writing something with so much freedom feels more alien now than writing to an F-shaped keywording model.
Cosmopolitan and the London School of Modelling
When Miss Cole needed a prize for their competition, which appeared on the Cosmopolitan UK website, I was able to team them up with Debbie King, a television presenter who also runs the London School of Modelling. Debbie offered a weekend at modelling 'boot camp' as a prize, and her school got good exposure to its ideal demographic in the process.
The winner, Alexa, is on the cover at the top of this post. I've continued to work with Grace Cole on their other brands, including the recently launched Baby Naturals range under the Forever Friends brand. Their 'brand champion' Jane Thornber has become a friend, I'd like to think (and is one of the most inspirational people I know) and this project has been - and continues to be - one of my most rewarding on a personal and professional level.
In Summary
Brief: What's On guides and other features
Format: Virtual lifestyle magazine
Audience: Female, aged 16-25
Frequency: Monthly
Extras
- I helped secure the modelling boot camp prize for the Cosmopolitan UK competition.
- I continue to suggest ways to increase the exposure of other brands in the Grace Cole group.
- Miss Cole/Hot Pink and London School of Modelling both received substantial exposure through the contest.
- Debbie King has also used Baby Naturals products with her daughter Siena.
- Hot Pink's Twitter profile has over 1,000 followers; Baby Naturals has 350 and climbing, 3 months after the new website was launched.
