Men’s Health Promos
Men’s Health Magazine
The first direct mail promotion I wrote. It beat a big control written by one of the top copywriters in the business. Beginner’s luck? Maybe, but the second promotion I wrote for Men’s Health also became the control. See below.
Men’s Health Magazine
These promotions for Men’s Health were written during a period when the magazine’s circulation was growing quite rapidly. Several test promotions were mailed every month. Competition was intense. Control packages were mailed by the millions, so it was no small feat to write two control packages in a row.
Men’s Confidential Newsletter
This scrappy little newsletter featured articles more strongly oriented towards sexual topics. The publisher was slightly uncomfortable with it, so they decided to set a circulation goal and, thinking it would never reach it, they could make a “business decision” to kill the newsletter. They hired me to write the promotion, which met their goal and then some! They wound up selling the newsletter a year or two later. One trivia fact: though the masthead listed a male editor, which was a good idea considering the deeply intimate and personal topics, the editor was a young woman.
The Body You Want In The Time You Have
The author of the book didn’t like the 10-minute promise in my promo, despite my pointing to the page where he said in very precise terms that you could get results in as little as ten minutes per day. The wise marketing manager for the project overruled his objection. I didn’t hear any complaints about his royaties, since the promotion was a breakthrough success.
Men’s Health Book Service
This was a great project to work on, because not only was I responsible for the promotional copy, but also for creating the premium giveaway book from years worth of magazine self-help articles. So instead of being handed something already created by someone else, I could find the most fascinating and blurb-able facts and create the ultimate irresistible premium. Fun!
Sports Illustrated Edge
You never heard of this magazine because it was never actually published. What was published was this test promotion to gauge interest in the marketplace. Interest was apparently not sufficient to warrant full-scale publication. But we had a lot of fun creating an imaginary magazine!