The Twenty Tweetable Truths About Magazines In Animated Type

  • Fonts in Use
Fonts in Use, ScreenFonts | Yves Peters | October 23, 2009

As far as using the medium to your advantage goes, this one really does a brilliant job. Last week the Magazine Publishers of America – the industry association for consumer magazines – launched a campaign to support their mission to advance the interests of magazine publishers with the advertising community, the government, the press and the public. The campaign expertly combines two social media channels that famously cause messages to go viral: Twitter and YouTube. It comes in the form of a motion graphics video with animated typography spelling out twenty myth-busting facts that showcase magazine vitality, tweetable in 140 characters or less. Even better, the dedicated page on the MPA website lists the twenty “thruths” with handy “Tweet this” buttons next to each quote.

Originally used to kick off the Magazine Innovation Summit two weeks ago, it gave a sense of hope about the struggling industry facing tough times. The video is well executed, simple and effective. The almost exclusively typographic piece features Gotham caps – in black or reversed out – on flat colour backgrounds. It cleverly plays with juxtapositions of size and colour, and the quotes move on the screen at a pleasantly nimble pace. Although I am generally a bit wary whenever anyone professes certain stamements to be “thruths”, the sources for the quotes do look pretty solid, so I’m incline to believe what is being said. Amanda Ernst remarks in her entry on FishbowlNY that:

A lot of the magazine news that we report here is not positive, so it’s encouraging to see 20 real facts that are upbeat. But they only tell part of the story — although admittedly its the part that the MPA wants to emphasize. The video made us excited, but then we thought, “If all this is true, why are so many magazines closing? Why are so many people losing their jobs?”

Food for thought indeed.

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7 Comments:

  1. I only love motion graphics with typography in it. So, thanks for sharing Mr. Peters.

    Posted by mk2 on Oct. 23, 2009

  2. As someone with several clients in publishing I can attest that there’s more stability here than meets the eye. It tough when giants such as Hearst & Conde Nast, for example, fold well-known and well-loved titles and lay-off staff during a perceived crisis in their industry when, in reality, the lens with which it should be viewed is the GLOBAL economic crisis. That being said, I do remember a book called something like How To Lie With Statistics…

    Posted by Art Thompson on Nov. 10, 2009

  3. The MPA’s claims are most definitely true. I work in the Time Inc. Research & Insights division, and I’ve watched (and, you know, researched) for the last year and a half as frightened, uncertain ADVERTISERS pulled their money out of magazines by the pie graph slice.

    Last year, projections indicated that there would be a massive consumer disengagement in most industries. And there was. Marketers have had to adjust to a drastically different consumer: one with different attitudes and expectations; one that demands more responsibility and integrity in the companies from whom they buy. Incidentally – and despite the damage it’s done to my workplace, I think it’s a change for the better.

    The old ways of advertising abruptly stopped yielding results. Sales are beginning to rise now, but it’s not just because customers are finally getting used to the idea of spending again; it’s also that advertisers have finally managed to engage them again.

    But magazines have shown remarkable readership stability during recessions, and this one has been no exception. The readers are there, but advertisers have lost confidence in all of the old ad forms. We spend most of our times beating our heads against the walls: “People love magazines! This one still works!”

    Posted by fafhrd on Nov. 10, 2009

  4. hi, wonderful article.
    someone know what is the font used in the video?
    thanks

    Posted by daniele on Nov. 11, 2009

  5. Daniele – see the third sentence, it’s Gotham.

    Posted by Dan on Nov. 11, 2009

  6. p.s. this video is for speed readers only! I kept having to rewind to see what I’d missed. Looks good though, and interesting points.

    Posted by Dan on Nov. 11, 2009

  7. Oh yeah, and this reminds me of a motion graphics piece I did back in ’04 for the then solvent YM Magazine to tout their numbers: http://bit.ly/11hNKs

    Posted by Art Thompson on Nov. 12, 2009

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