According to Laura Ward-Ongley (pictured below): FabTips is the first luxury beauty blogzine to be launched in the UK and combines the authentic and straight talking tone of voice of a blog with the crafted content and features of a glossy magazine and is targeted at busy, beauty conscious women who don’t have time to read a dozen magazines a month but still want to know about the best and most effective new beauty products on the market. Already attracting a cross platform reach of over 100k, FabTips is one of the fastest growing websites in the UK with 246% increase in traffic over the last quarter and thousands of Facebook fans and Twitter followers including rock and roll royalty and magazine editors.
Laura is an award winning advertising executive who began work at one of the world's top creative advertising agencies BBH, quickly rose through the ranks and went on to become Global account director at AMV BBDO, working across global brands including Blackberry, Audi, Persil and The Sunday Times.
Laura explains how FabTips was born: “Over the past decade I’ve watched the explosion of blogs across the digital landscape but I soon noticed that a lot of the beauty blogs were written by people in their 20s and that they just didn’t feel relevant to me as a 30 something ‘high flying’ career gal. I’m not going to wear neon lipstick to a meeting and most nail art really isn’t feasible in my life, I don’t have time! Then I started to see the emergence of USA blogzines (the future of professional blogging, expect them to explode in the UK over the next 5 years), which combined the authenticity of a blog with really relevant news and features and that is very much the style I’ve used for FabTips.
“The FabTips features, exclusives and tips are updated daily and are mined from my own very precious ‘little black book’ of experts, brand insiders and also from the fabulous women I’ve met on my travels shooting adverts all over the world. You’d be amazed what you can glean from a conversation in the BA First Class lounge, Soho House Ladies Room and Harrods!”
The FabTips content is crafted specifically with busy career women in mind, offering time savers, tips, tricks and products that actually work. The flow of the site is very much devised around an average working day so readers can dip into the day’s fashion and beauty news during their commute, glance through the ‘must have’ product directory in Starbucks and then go deeper with the day’s feature during the obligatory desk lunch.
Over a year ago Laura began canvassing the blogging community and her target audience (ABC1 30+ high flying career girls) and the concept of FabTips was born. Starting with a holding page blog to recruit readers earlier this year, Laura then pitched for and received a £10k Start-Up Loan from Business Finance Solutions, which she invested in building the full state of the art site.
Paul Breen, Director of Business Finance Solutions, said: “Laura is exactly the kind of person that the Start-Up Loans were designed to support. She has found a unique business idea that she is completely passionate about, understands her market inside out and is already making the concept very popular with her audience. With her own advertising background and business acumen, FabTips looks set to be a big success and we’re delighted to be able to supply the funding and business support she needed to get it up and running.”
The Loans are delivered in the North West by Business Finance Solutions with successful applicants also receiving expert mentoring, business support and training. Nationally over 2000 loans have now been awarded and the Prime Minister said: “This clearly demonstrates the ambition and drive people in this country have to create a business and I am pleased that Start-Up Loans are helping more and more entrepreneurs who start small but think big transform their ideas into viable, growing businesses. I am on the side of people who want to work hard and get on in life, and it is by backing aspiration and the businesses of tomorrow, as well as the businesses of today, that we are equipping the UK to compete in the global race."
Young people aged 18 – 30 can email info@BFSstartuploans.co.uk or visit www.startuploans.co.uk to learn more about the Start Up Loans and register.
