The EV Media Corporate Publishing Agency, with teams in Hamburg, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and the USA, produces high-quality print products for leading companies in the car, property and banking industries. With a view to keeping up with latest developments, Urs Holewa, responsible for marketing and cooperation agreements with products of Engel & Völkers, Porsche and Berenberg Bank, is planning to visit the IFRA and DCX dual conference event. In an interview with DCX, Holewa spoke about the challenges he faces.
DCX: You work for the customer magazines of Engel & Völkers (GG Magazin) and for Porsche’s Christophorus. As you see it, to what extent does print continue to be an attractive medium, especially for customer communication and in corporate publishing?
Holewa: These days we are all overwhelmed by various messages, offers and stimulations. Consequently, we have to strictly filter these according to our personal preferences. In addition, everything has become very high-speed, a development that can be clearly observed in the digital sector. Our attention span has also become shorter in the last years, something that perfectly suits digital contents and formats. Print media are having to fight their corner in this environment, but have a good basis on which to do so.
Print permits companies to enter into contact with their customers at regular intervals and communicate their desired contents to them – in the case of our customer magazines, this occurs between twice and five times annually. The magazines are delivered directly to the home, which constitutes a major advantage in view of the flood of online information in which such information is more easily overlooked. Customers are more open to browsing the pages of a well-designed magazine in the peace and pleasant atmosphere of their homes. People spend more time with print and do not simply let news of latest innovations rush past them as they would on mobile devices. Offline media create a strong personal relationship, which is why they are still popular with many target audiences.
DCX: What makes your products different from other customer magazines?
Holewa: Our primary focus is to offer a high quality, also for our advertisers. Christophorus is the magazine for Porsche customers and is published four times annually to inform about the latest models and car designs. It is characterized by a brand-promoting aesthetic design, a mixture of elegance and dynamism, character and sportiness. It also has an impressively long tradition: the first issue of the magazine ‘for the friends of the house of Porsche’ was published 63 years ago and became one of the first high-quality customer magazines worldwide. Whereas Christophorus consists of 100% corporate contents, the Engel & Völkers GG Magazin is editorially independent and can be bought as a regular newspaper distribution product.
DCX: What is currently your greatest challenge in corporate publishing?
Holewa: To date, our magazine is not produced in digital form. Advertising revenues continue overall to be at an acceptable level. But with a view to the future we hope that our visit to the IFRA World Publishing Expo and DCX Digital Content Expo will give us new impulses as well as show us tools to help us strengthen our print media as well as discover new sources for generating additional turnover. In this connection, the presentation of the Print Innovation Award could show us new innovations that could be of interest to us.
The article was first published on the DCX website.
