Magi

That's as close as we'll ever get to Leonardo DiCaprio

consists of a close-knit team of a dozen professionals who have successfully adopted the new media approach in movies, television and entertainment, blending the traditional medium of the print magazine into the ‘Internet´ environment.

“Although the Internet offers exciting opportunities to expand readership and gain notoriety,” says Genie Livingstone, Magi´s Marketing Co-ordinator, “significant differences between computer types and browsers (the software used to ‘surf´ the Internet) can present some real challenges when it comes to creating a site that is as colourful and entertaining as the magazine itself, yet is designed and constructed in such a way so as not to overtax weaker computers with their slower modems and limited computing power.”

The Preview-Online team. Design Team Project Co-ordinator Bob Perry. Magi’s Marketing Co-ordinator Genie Livingstone.

“Following the initial design, the main challenge in producing Preview-Online.com regularly is the time crunch”, says Bob Perry, Design Team Project Co-ordinator. The printed materials are over-nighted from the UK to Los Angeles, along with a hot-off-the-press issue of the magazine itself. Perry´s job is to co-ordinate the conversion of the printed issue to Internet form both quickly and accurately: after all, what works in a magazine format doesn´t always translate to the Internet, but maintaining a close similarity has been a vital concern for Preview-Online.com. from day one.

The success of the online publication is attested to by the fact that the number of subscribers to the site has grown since its inception, from a few casual visitors per day to over 1,000 unique daily visitors.
While the success of any website is basically dependent upon content - especially timely, interesting and varied material - site promotion is a tremendous challenge to any marketing department and it is Livingstone who is ultimately responsible for the success or otherwise of the online publication. So, with the May-June ´99 launch-edition of the magazine and the Internet debut of Preview-Online.com, Livingstone´s challenge was to gain notoriety and obtain visitors to the site.

“It´s a complex process where we seek out a venue to introduce the site within appropriate channels on the Internet,” she says. “Starting with a good design, we wanted to partner with other media organisations to attain maximum searchability on the Internet.”

This, she explains, demands more effort than merely submitting a site to ‘search engines´. If, for example, someone searches for information about the movie The Matrix anywhere on the Internet, the challenge was to get Preview-Online.com high on the list of possible matches. With something like 100,000 new businesses going online every month, coupled with millions of sites being promoted continuously, the task of site promotion is both complex and demanding.

“But the results of Magi´s promotional efforts have exceeded our expectations,” says Livingstone. “Within the first month, Preview-Online.com was awarded ‘Site of the Day´ and ultimately ‘Site of the Week´ by Yahoo. This award by itself generated a visitor base of over 10,000 visitors in one day and positioned Preview-Online.com as a recognised major player in the online movie industry. Several other awards followed, and Preview-Online.com now has a tremendous following with an international audience numbering in the thousands from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

“Each article is promoted on the Internet as if it is its own website,” says Livingstone. “This strategy brings specific audiences to specific articles. But then the cross-over occurs when a fan of The Beach is drawn to the website based upon its featured article but, while there, explores other parts of the site and other featured articles.

“Our analysis has shown that Preview-Online.com itself is becoming the major draw for the Internet audience instead of a specific search inquiry that resulted from a specific film title. Whereas, initially, 80% of the traffic to Preview-Online.com originated from search engines, today 80% of the traffic is generated from people going directly to the Preview-Online.com home page. This success at branding is a major accomplishment, given the vast nature of the Internet marketplace.”

“Ultimately, neither site design, technical proficiency nor a qualified marketing department will guarantee success on the Internet,” concludes Perry. “It´s the combination of design, content and marketing, coupled with a close working relationship with clients, that garners success on the Internet. A successful web-hosting and design company must foster a high level of customer service in order to cement its relationship with its clients, to listen to its clients´ ideas and assist them in making those ideas come alive on the Internet.”