Playboy, the world’s best-read men’s magazine, recently announced its entry into the Philippines.
The launch marked the US-based skin magazine’s second bite of the cherry in Southeast Asia, after an experience it is unlikely to forget in Indonesia.
Last year’s Indonesia launch did not exactly go to plan - leading to boycotts and empty advertising pages in the second issue. But Playboy clearly believes that its content has a future in the Asian region, even if it has had to tone down some of its racier sections.
At the same time, men’s magazines in Asia are gradually becoming more risqué. Which raises the question: is the market for boobs and bums literature growing in prudish Asia?
And should advertisers be taking more notice, despite a regulatory environment that is still strict by Western standards?
1 In regulatory terms, at least, men’s magazines remain under strict scrutiny across Asia. Nudity is the yardstick to how low men’s magazines can go in different Asian markets. Indecency is not taken lightly in Singapore, where the authorities block major pornographic internet sites including Playboy and Penthouse .
Muslim countries are even more strict. The editor of Playboy Indonesia spent months in court on an indecency charge before being eventually acquitted earlier this year. In the Philippines - a country that is dominated by Catholics - church groups are seeking redress in the Immorality, Pornography and Obscenity Act to curtail the publication.
2 Luckily, then, it looks like some men’s magazines are trying to look beyond a ‘skin sells’ formula.
“The model being used by men’s magazines could go the way of women’s magazines with fashion spreads and topics for discussion, because it’s hard to sustain interest if it’s just about skin,” explains Seth Grossman, communications planning director of Carat in China.
“The trend now among young Chinese men, who are graduating from college and going into the workforce, is men’s grooming. They are very concerned with their appearance and clients like Nivea are using men’s magazines as voices of authority.”
3 Advertising in men’s titles skews towards predictable categories. Condom-makers and health supplements spend the most in the Philippines while cars, booze brands and gadgets are mainstays in most men’s titles across the region. Holman Chin, GM of Viscion Media Group, which publishes Playeur Journal, Singapore’s latest men’s title, maintains that brand advertising is important to keep out the ‘chat lines’ and ‘personals’ ads that are typically associated with top shelf media.
This seems to be working for FHM Singapore, which has a client list that includes Tag Heuer, Hyundai, Guinness, Puma and Sony. Advertisers in Japan’s girlie magazines are limited to dating websites, cosmetic surgery and consumer finance. However, Dave McCaughan, EVP of McCann Erickson Japan, says that luxury brands are not averse to splashing out, targeting the ‘cool daddy’ type.
4 Despite their obvious appeal to advertisers, many are put off by a paucity of audited circulation data. Most publications conduct their own research and publish their own figures. Hardly ideal. And their readership profiles are unhelpfully fluffy. They tend to be generic (‘mature’ or ‘up to 30’) or use stereotypical labels (‘cool’, ‘sporty’ or ‘urban’).
FHM Singapore (apparently) has a 70,000-readership base, while its Thai counterpart says it has 150,000 readers making it the seventh best-selling magazine in the market. Esquire is the leading men’s publication in China with 320,000 readers.
5 Given the success of FHM and Maxim in Asia, Playboy should be on safe ground when it comes to attracting a male audience. Memo Moreno, social media director of MindShare Philippines, explains: “It’ll take at least three months before advertisers become interested in Playboy. They would be curious about how different the magazine could be from FHM and Maxim.”
However, Grossman advises caution. “Advertisers are going for more tasteful content rather than the salacious stuff in Maxim or FHM. If they remain fixated on visuals, they will have an audience - but a constrained one.”
What it means for…
Media agencies
- Top shelf titles in Asia-Pacific don’t have the same smutty stigma as their British counterparts. In fact, they have the potential to be the authority or voice to speak to a targeted, if not alienated, group of men (and hundreds of thousands of them, if you believe their figures).
- Men’s magazines are in dire need of independent auditing to ascertain their readership figures, profiles and reach, or else media agencies will treat them with suspicion. Be aware that you might not be hitting your intended audience of a 30 year-old urbanite.
It might instead, be a spotty geek ogling at Jessica Alba.
Clients
- Be careful. While the numbers might be attractive, brand owners must ask whether their image necessarily fits next to a pictorial of the ‘it’ girl of the week.
- Go online. Men’s magazine portals have the potential to attract a huge number of eyeballs, thanks in part to a more lax regulatory environment in the digital sphere.
- Men’s magazines also have ample content to branch out to other media, such as TV and radio. FHM Singapore has begun plugging its cover girls via chat shows on radio and events at which the public can meet them. Could we see a reality TV show next to find its next ‘Girl Next Door’?
