Impressions magazine, a monthly trade title for the decorated apparel industry, has launched Ecoimpressions, a digital magazine, in an attempt to extend the brand.
Ecoimpressions will be delivered quarterly to Impressions’ online newsletter subscribers, which number around 60,000. The digital magazine will address industry greening issues such as sustainable practices and eco-friendly products.
“Being eco-friendly is, obviously, globally, the hot topic right now, but it’s been a huge part of the decorative apparel industry for at least a decade,” said Marcia Derryberry, editor in chief of Impressions. “So the issue has been covered in print for a while, but we found ourselves needing more room and asking how we could reach this audience more than once a year without increasing our own carbon footprint.”
Derryberry added that the Web version helped because the magazine has a controlled circulation of about 36,000. “Now we can get out on the Web so people outside of the industry can find us,” she said. “It’s a very entrepreneurial industry; a lot of new people come in.”
A marketing push for the new magazine will center on the Green Pavilion and Eco Trail attractions at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows — trade conferences that take place several times a year. The summer launch of Ecoimpressions was scheduled to coincide with the July Imprinted Sportswear Show.
In-house ads in print and online will also hype Ecoimpressions. “We worked a lot with search engine optimization so that people could find us,” Derryberry noted.
Derryberry noted that Impressions already publishes a handful of other digital products — including a digital edition of the print magazine — indicating that readers are comfortable with the concept. The next issue comes out in September.
