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Case Studies


A weekly magazine, a tight deadline and a very discerning mailing list

IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher, with a portfolio of brands selling over 350 million copies each year. Its magazines reach over 70% of UK women and 50% of UK men—over 28 million UK adults.

The job

One of IPC's titles is Horse & Hound – a weekly magazine whose subscribers demand excellent service, every week. They expect their copies on the due date and not a day later! Priority has been mailing Horse & Hound since 1990.

What we do

When Priority won this account in 1990, Horse & Hound was mailed to around 4,000 subscribers a week. The magazines would arrive at 6.00 am on a Wednesday and be mailed by 3.00 pm the same day, arriving with subscribers on the Thursday. At that time we inkjetted the polywraps before mailing.

Now, Horse & Hound is mailed to 22,000 subscribers a week. After downloading the data from an FTP site, we duplex print a paper carrier and assemble any mechanical onsets (with 3mm-5mm spines) before wrapping and mailing. Although the list size has increased fivefold, we still have—and meet—the same deadlines. To do less would be to incur the wrath of the magazine's subscribers!

The result

We’ve been mailing Horse & Hound for 16 years – a testament to our ability to get it right week in, week out. The subscribers are happy and so are IPC, for whom we now mail 500,000 magazines a month, including Cycling Weekly, The Field, Country Homes and Interiors and Practical Boat Owner.

"We work to very tight deadlines. A lot of our titles are mailed first class and need to be in at 6.00 am and out at 3.00 pm the same day. Priority wrap over five million magazines a year for us and they are one of the most reliable mailing houses I've worked with. Plus we have a good open relationship so they always keep me informed at every stage of every job."

Kevin Lamb, Logistics Manager, IPC Media

A new-style business report,a senior audience and a very tight deadline

BLU wass part of the DTI’s Small Business Service. It provided information and training to Business Link Operators and other organisations involved in supporting SMEs. BLU’s marketing agency, Sunfish, created all BLU’s marketing and editorial materials. They worked closely with us to produce everything from flyers and invitations to reports and training manuals.

The brief

A BLU working party created a 40-page report analysing how entrepreneurs learn from each other. Sunfish designed the report as a full-colour business journal and needed 200 copies printing and binding in two weeks for a conference to discuss the report’s findings.

The audience were high-level civil servants and chief executives of Government agencies and it was imperative that the reports looked immaculate.

What we did

First, we produced a proof of the journal, calibrating the colour palette to the particular paper Sunfish wanted. Owing to the number of pages and weight of paper, we pre-creased the sheets to make the journal sit flatter. Once Sunfish approved the proof, we printed and bound the reports.

To ensure the reports arrived in pristine condition for the conference, we hand-packed them in A4 cartons after adding corner reinforcing card, packed these into A3 cartons, then machine strapped them using two sets of 6mm cross straps.

The result

The reports arrived on time, in perfect condition, ready for BLU's conference. Feedback from the delegates was extremely positive, with the 'journal' a welcome change from standard business report formats.

"Having Priority as part of the team means we never have to worry. On this occasion, they excelled themselves, producing a great-looking report that our client loved."

Andy Maslen, Managing Director, Sunfish.