Zinio pushes e-mail magazines as green reading

Online publishing firm Zinio has recently launched “The read green initiative,” a promotion aiming to build consumer awareness of digital magazines. It offers free digital copies of titles including Business Week, Men's Health and Elle.

“The main motivation behind this program was to drive consumer awareness around digital magazine and get them to sign up for trials,” said Jeanniey Mullen, EVP and CMO of Zinio.

The promotion lets consumers download one free magazine by signing up at www.GoReadGreen.com with their e-mail address. Once some signs up, they are sent a welcome e-mail with a send-to-friend option. On the first day of the offer, 200 e-mails were sent out to people who had signed up and, through that, more than 2,500 send-to-friend e-mails were sent virally. The goal of the campaign is to get a consumer to sign up for a free magazine to introduce them to the experience, in order to sell more down the road.

The campaign also has an environmental element as well. After doing a study, the digital publishing firm found that consumers are likely to purchase products that are environmentally friendly.