Home Articles Elevator Pitch: Indigo Magazine

    Elevator Pitch: Indigo Magazine

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    A magazine for developing minds

     

    COMPANY NAME:
    Big Blue Marble Publishing
     
    FOUNDER:
    Leanne Koster and Natalina Morelli
     
    ORIGINS:
    Created in 2007 by two mothers frustrated by the messages presented by other magazines in the teen and pre-teen market.
     
    CAPITAL:
    Self-funded by founders
     
    RECENT BUZZ:

    Despite lack of marketing budget and stand-still start, the product has been embraced by the target market. Recent media coverage, across print and radio channels has driven subscription and retail sales. The product is now available in over 1,700 newsagencies, book shops and retail outlets across Australia (including NewsXpress and Ritchies IGA Supermarkets.)
     
     
    THE PITCH:
     
    Launched in August 2007, Indigo is much more than a magazine – it is a social movement. The brain-child of Leanne Koster and Natalina Morelli, two accomplished business women and mothers, Indigo is about contributing to the “positive self-image” of Indigo Magazine’s target audience: girls aged 10-14 years.
     
    “The current magazine options for girls of this age include editorial and advertising simply not suitable for developing minds,” says Koster. “This age groupis seeking examples, points of reference and role models to relate to and guide their personal development and self-image. Indigo was created to offer a healthy, positive alternative.”
     
    Girls, mothers and representatives from schools, industry and government have already embraced Indigo Magazine, evidenced by encouraging emails, letters of support, offers to distribute within their networks and, most importantly, through the purchase of magazines, including 12-month subscriptions, often in bulk.
     

    At the time of writing, over 350 Australian schools had purchased the magazine. Over 10,200 individual magazine units had been sold, including over 1,000 magazine subscriptions. With Issue four in pre-production, Indigo is currently courting advertisers, interested in this attractive target market. Indigo is currently published quarterly.

    Jordan Green,
    Entrepreneur, VC, Angel Investor
     
    “The focus and intent of this venture is a stand out opportunity well suited to the emerging social dynamic and the desire of parents to afford their children balanced, healthy and relevant content, role models and social standards. A physical magazine has particular traction for its readers, being readily accessible anywhere, anytime. The primary challenges I see for commercial success lie in keeping advertising consistent with the values and building a web-presence to empower merchandising and other revenue streams.”
    Reuben Buchanan,
    Integral Capital Group (founder or Wealth Creator and Think Big magazine)
     

    “Having launched Wealth Creator and now Think Big magazine, I know this space well. The failure rate is high with start-up magazines due to a crowded market, low barriers to entry and large dominant players. Getting advertisers is the key and it concerns me that they have struggled to attract any advertisers in their first two issues. If they can become exceptional at selling ad pages, they have a chance of succeeding. Otherwise they will become road-kill on the busy magazine publishing highway.”
    David Bennett,
    POWERflex Corporation
     

     “Indigo is a nicely written pitch for a pre-teen lifestyle magazine start-up in search of survival. Its founders know who to write for but not who to sell to: readers, parents, schools, channel or advertisers? Magazines come and go, but with no financials or business model it will take a very special investor to back this one. Odd name, too.”
     
     

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