Thursday 30 July 2009

Daily Candy gets even sweeter

So Fashionista headed to the very glamourous location of the Swarovski Crystallized Lounge, opposite one of Fashionista's meccas, Liberty. On the menu was an interview with the equally glamourous Daily Candy London editor, Malika Dalamal who was questioned by FBC co-founder & co-chairman, Alison Whelan (also very glamourous!) about the rise of Daily Candy ("DC") and its plans for the future.
Interestingly, DC began on the back of founder Dany Levy's frustrations with the long lead times required to get content into magazines and so started by sending lifestyle focused emails to friends and family in New York back in 2000. By the end of that first week, she had a following of around 7,000 people!

Reportedly sold to Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures for around $3 million in 2003, and then to Comcast for $125 million in August 2008 - its rise in popularity has been truly astounding. The London edition now has around 100,000 subscribers and, according to Malika, the typical subscriber is the 29 year old (mostly female) "who loves her city and wants to engage in it." She also wants to know the latest places to eat or the hippest brands to wear and DC seeks to provide some of these answers.

In terms of getting a mention in DC, it's not an easy job (only 5-10% of those who make contact ever get featured) but provided DC have an exclusive angle and the product/story is clever, smart and relevant whilst not being too expensive - you may have a shot of getting a mention. It seems that getting a mention on DC should be on every fashionistas "to do" list as products that are featured in DC seem to have a knack of selling out. Malika quotes a story about Rebecca Minkoff's decision to stop designing clothing and concentrate solely on bags after DC did a feature on her bags and they ended up selling out - everywhere! That's quite a marketing tool for the up and coming designer.

Fashionista already looks forward to her daily dose of DC, so with DC looking to change its current format of posting old "candies" in favour of a destination "City Guide" website offering the savvy gal tips on whats hot in the city of London and providing more temptation in the form of events, discounts and sample sales to keep the DC gal hooked - it looks like Fashionista won't be kicking her love of sweets anytime soon! Watch the space too for a kids site, dedicated wedding site and more video content: http://www.dailycandy.com/london/

Everyday should be a DC day!

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