IPC Ignite! goes clubbing for insight into youth market

IPC Ignite!, the publisher of Later, Loaded and NME, has embarked on a consumer insight programme which involves its marketing team researching youth interests in nightclubs.

The team is thought to be researching youth lifestyle ahead of the launch of a younger men’s title later this year. IPC Ignite! will not comment on any plans for the launch.

The new consumer insight programme involves the marketing team at IPC Ignite! – including marketing director Vijay Solanki – going into clubs to research what the target market wears, drinks and dances to.

Solanki says: “My concerns are whether a group of 18-year-old guys will tell you about their innermost secrets through conventional research.

“Will they really reveal sexual activity or their pill-popping exercises? At IPC Ignite! we’ve committed to going the extra mile and want to make sure the marketing teams truly empathise with the brands they work on.”

Loaded, the pioneer of the lads’ mag phenomenon, posted a decline of 5.4 per cent year on year in the last ABCs, ending December 2000. IPC’s other lads’ mag, Later, showed a disastrous decline of 22.4 per cent in its year-on-year circulation.

IPC Ignite! is understood to be considering three possible magazine launches this year, although this is denied by the media company.