Natasha Banjo, portfolio director – women’s Lifestyle, Hearst UK, Cosmopolitan, Prima and Red shares her insights

• After many years working in national press, what are you excited about when talking to partners/advertisers about magazine media?

After years of working with news and broadcast brands, I have been blown away by the relationship and influence our magazine brands have with our customers. Our readers are extremely loyal and spend considerable amounts of time engaging with our content across channels. What really excites me is the opportunity to create new ways to engage our audiences through premium, multiplatform partnerships, which test new formats and bring brands to life in exciting ways.

• How does the Women’s Lifestyle portfolio ensure high engagement levels among its readers, and why is this beneficial for advertisers targeting women’s lifestyle segments?

You can never know enough about your audience, and we pride ourselves on the relationship we have built with them over the years. They are at the heart of everything we do. We ask them what they want, and more importantly what they don’t want, adapting our content, products and services accordingly. Our readers trust our brands, and I would like to think that we support them through different stages of their lives.

When working with partners we ensure that our brands align and the content we serve is relevant and purposeful. We take our partners on a journey with us, sharing insights and access into our audiences.

• How do your brand’s ability to target specific demographics and interests within the broader category of women’s lifestyle enhance the effectiveness of ad campaigns? 

Our editorial teams know their audiences’ demographic inside out and they create multiplatform content that fits into their busy lives. This is evolving every day, and we’re building out our brand ecosystems to form daily touchpoints. This approach allows us to work in collaboration with our partners to create the right opportunities to authentically engage our audiences.

• What is it about the trust and authority magazine media holds among its readers and how this impacts the credibility of the ads? 

We have spent decades building up trust, and the longevity of our brands enables us to unlock new opportunities to deepen connections with our valued partners.

Cosmopolitan celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2022, and the site now has 3.4m unique users between the ages of 15-34, offering significant reach and access to a Gen Z audience.  Prima has been championing women for almost 40 years and its readers are 92% more likely to trust what they see if it’s written in the magazine, whilst 79% agree that the advertising we carry connects with them. Red turned 25 last year and has recently seen year-on-year ABC growth. It also has an exceptionally strong eCommerce performance due to its influence and connection with readers. They buy what our editors tell them to!

The cross-generational reach of the Women’s Lifestyle portfolio really allows us to get creative with our campaigns.

• How do magazine brands foster a sense of community among readers, and why is this beneficial for advertisers looking to build brand loyalty?

Our brands have heritage, authority and thrive from the communities we have created and continue to build daily. Our readers trust us, and this opens doors for partners who want to drive awareness and engagement in a brand safe environment.  

• What trends are you seeing in women’s lifestyle advertising, and how are your brands adapting to meet the evolving needs of both readers and advertisers?

We are creating more valuable long-term relationships with our commercial partners, building 360 campaigns that engage and really deliver against objectives. We take our time to understand the brands we work with, collaborating for mutual benefit, and integrating them in all our customer touchpoints. Campaigns need to work harder these days and that is when you get the licence to become creative and do things differently.