Wellness360, a custom publication from Aperture Health Inc., will launch in California in April.
Aperture is a provider of corporate health and wellness programs and the publisher of interactive health site Wellness360.com. The magazine’s inaugural issue will be direct mailed to registered Wellness360.com members residing in the company’s home state of California, hitting a circulation of more than 400,000 mobile, educated, health-conscious Internet users. Average Wellness360.com members are over 35 years old, and 85% pay for their own health insurance.
“The magazine is designed to be supportive of our membership base,” said Thomas Banks, chairman, founder and CEO of Aperture Health. “We’ve had gigantic growth rates, so we’re planning the magazine to fortify our message to our membership because people aren’t online 24/7. We need a message conduit to our membership to remind them and encourage utilization of online services.”
Florida and Illinois are next in line to receive Wellness360 magazine. By the end of the year, Banks expects the monthly to be nationwide.
Although the Wellness360 site already offers social networking and other Web 2.0 perks, upgrades are planned for 2009. Podcasts are slated to run this summer, and Banks said he is giving some thought to Wellness360 streaming radio.
Wellness360 magazine not only offers a new channel to reach constituents, it also will provide a new platform for the advertisers who wholly support the company. Pharma, health and wellness, entertainment and CPG companies are all represented online and in the pages of the magazine.
The company needs these ads because it pays users, who receive free Wellness360 membership and services, cash rewards for using the site. Banks describes the business as a loyalty program, rewarding members 33 cents for every dollar it earns through its targeted advertising. Sponsoring entities, such as employers, are also paid a small sum based on ad revenue.
Banks said he hopes Wellness360 represents a paradigm shift in American healthcare.
“Wouldn’t it be interesting if, through this effort, we could shift even 10% of health care costs off of taxpayers’ shoulders and onto the shoulders of advertisers that want it if they can get a benefit?” he noted.
