According to Hearst Magazines UK: Esquire.co.uk’s radical new look combines strong visuals and interactive content designed to increase the frequency of audience engagement. Top of the list of innovative new features is Esquire Daily, a tight edit of five items that every smart man should know about, delivered each morning. This is allied to the site’s authoritative advice, recommendations and opinions on style, grooming, gadgets, entertainment, food & drink, sport, cars, humour, sex and technology, as well as selected long reads from Esquire’s high-profile columnists and contributors.
The new-look site offers brands sophisticated new ways to work with Esquire across all its platforms. The five key editorial pillars of the site – Style, Gear, Food & Drink, Culture and Women – are fully aligned with the brand’s advertising base, enabling brands to engage with Esquire readers in new ways.
The site is the first Hearst brand website to become completely optimised across mobile, tablet and desktop devices. It is also the first Hearst UK brand to be built on the ExpressionEngine platform – a unique modular content management system developed by American software company, Ellislab. It is also fully SEO enhanced to ensure quick access for its time-poor reader base.
Esquire.co.uk’s innovative refresh is the first phase of the brand’s forward-looking digital strategy, and sets the pace for further additions to the Esquire universe in coming months. Within hours of its soft launch, the site was lauded by the tech and design community and has already been recognised for its outstanding design by the CSS Design Awards. It has also been featured by influential digital design website Site Inspire. Page impressions on the new site have already increased by 52% since launch, with unique users up 37%.
Alex Bilmes, Editor of Esquire, said: ‘Esquire is the UK’s most stylish, sophisticated and substantial multi-platform men’s magazine brand and it’s great to be able to give our readers access to an expertly curated collection of our quality content, whenever and wherever they are. The slick new site design is the first of a number of exciting initiatives from Esquire, so watch this space.’
Amanda Turnbull, Group Publishing Director for Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, said: ‘Enhancing Esquire’s offering across all platforms is at the heart of our strategy for the brand in 2013. Creating innovative new features for the site and developing fresh additions to the world of Esquire provide new ways to engage readers, and in turn, valuable opportunities for brands to connect with an increasingly engaged audience.’
