Welcome, Guest [Sign In]

April 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Youth report

Vice is everywhere (the cool kids are - from Montreal to Baghdad, from street to web to screen)

by Lucy Saddleton
page 50

International lifestyle brand Vice is a prime example of how fearlessness, combined with fresh thinking and staying in tune with its demo, can keep a brand one step ahead of the competition. It began in 1994 as a modest Montreal-based magazine and has since snowballed into a multifaceted youth-culture media empire boasting, among other things, its own film company, record label and broadband channel.

In a feat of synergy, Vice Films' highly acclaimed feature-length documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, which follows the plight of Iraqi heavy-metal band Acrassicauda, premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, then was picked up by Arts Alliance America and had its U.S. premiere last month at Austin, TX.'s SXSW Film Festival - the first magazine-to-web-to-film project to make that leap. The North American DVD and theatrical release in June will be preceded by 12 university campus screenings across Canada.

By staying relevant and constantly coming up with new ways to communicate with its youthful consumer, Vice has expanded into 15 countries, with a global magazine circulation expected to reach one million by the end of the year. In Canada, it distributes 55,000 copies of each issue, and the two websites garner around 100,000 unique visitors each.

Now based in New York, the free magazine targets the urban 21- to 34-year-old trendsetter, with a skew towards males. Topics range from pop and underground culture to environmental and political issues.

Much of the company's success can be attributed to honesty, according to Shawn Phelan, director of sales at Vice's Toronto office. "There is an authenticity to the dialogue we have with our readers," he says. "We are going to call things as we see them, and if that gets us in trouble with advertisers or scares some of them away, so be it."

In March 2007 Vice delved deeper into the world of youth culture with the launch of vbs.tv, an advertiser-supported broadband site that streams original content 24 hours a day. Within three months of its launch, vbs.tv had already surpassed Vice magazine in popularity. The latest big documentary to hit the site is The Vice Guide to North Korea.

Despite its often controversial content, vbs.tv manages to lure many blue-chip advertisers hoping to reach the lucrative youth market, including Honda and Toyota as well as telecoms like Nokia and CPG companies. Marketing partnerships with online networks like YouTube and MySpace allow advertisers to reach a broader spectrum of Internet users.

"We are selling ads to companies that we'd never have dreamed of selling to five years ago," says Phelan. In fact, he says vbs.tv is often an "easier sell" than the magazine, due to customized content, created by Vice in partnership with the client, and the use of geo-targeted advertising, which delivers the brand directly to consumers in the right location.

Quick Search