Previously distributed by Seymour, the new-look magazine has chosen COMAG Specialist to handle distribution from the issue on sale 6 May. CLASH reveals a complete redesign with the support of a major PR and publicity campaign across all media for maximum exposure.
CLASH marks its milestone issue with a total revamp, adopting a new layout and digital style, which is more connected to the readership and the changing face of modern magazines. The introduction of a new, bolder masthead and smaller format make CLASH more accessible with added punch, says COMAG.
New-look CLASH is clean, classy and easy to navigate. This follows the recruitment of a new art team with extensive consumer magazine experience, including GQ, Elle, News Of The World, Total Film and thelondonpaper.
The relaunch has the backing of a full and considerable PR and marketing campaign. CLASH has teamed up with DawBell PR, whose clients include Paul McCartney, Take That and Leona Lewis, to form a strategy promoting CLASH, its staff and its content across the media throughout May and beyond. This includes radio, TV, print and online coverage - interviews and profiles of CLASH staff will appear on Radio 1, in The Sun, The Guardian, in trade papers PR Week and Music Week and many other papers and broadsheets. An advert for the issue will run in the Evening Standard on Thursday 6 May, the first day of sale. This will be seen by 1.3 million people.
To further capitalise on media coverage, 50,000 copies of a free 24-page sampler will be distributed across the UK. Content will be cherry picked from a cross-section of the magazine, offering examples of news pages, portions of high-profile music interviews and samples of fashion and film coverage.
The sampler will be distributed hand-to-hand one week before the magazine's launch to the key demographic throughout the UK and will continue to be a promotional tool at various CLASH events over the all important summer period, when music festivals explode onto the scene.
The biggest independent music media site in the UK ClashMusic.com marks a weekly countdown to the relaunch. It currently attracts 300,000 unique visitors a month.
News of the relaunch will also reach recipients of CLASH’s weekly newsletter, which currently goes to 70,000 registered fans.
Social networks are being used for promotion and CLASH has a substantial following across Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Bebo, as an influential media figure in these communities.
A full outdoor poster campaign will take place throughout every major city in the UK. Reproducing the 50th issue cover, the posters will be in the cities’ prime locations, including many student campuses.
On the day of release, CLASH is hosting a spectacular and very special launch party in London. On Thursday 6 May, invited guests will fill The Monarch in Camden to make good use of a free bar - thanks to sponsors Tuborg beer and Finlandia vodka - and the complimentary food on offer.
Figures from the music, media, magazine and retail industries will be all under one roof celebrating the relaunch of CLASH and will be the first people to see the new issue.
