Excellent online magazine, Hagerty. If you have classic car insurance through Hagerty, you get the magazine in the mail. For everyone that doesn't:

click on this link: http://www.hagerty.com/Hagerty-Online/Resources/Hagerty-Magazine and then click on whichever issue you want to read. Takes a minute to load, but it's very cool if this is your only way to catch an issue you missed, or if you aren't a customer of theirs

Amos publishing company merges 6 magazines

I used to subscribe to Musclecar Enthusiast. I liked it. I can't remember when I recieved the last one, and don't know if they stopped coming because I didn't renew my subscription, or if they went out of business like Motor Trend Classic did a couple years ago... just poof!

They never informed subscribers that they weren't going to finish with your subscription that you'd paid for. The Motor Trend Classic kept the unfulfilled money and didn't credit me towards another title. They pissed me off.

Anyway, Amos Publications is merging 6 titles into a new magazine called Auto Enthusiast. Cars and Parts, Musclecar Enthusiast were 2 of them.

About 10 pages of Chevy, then Ford, then Mopar, etc etc. I'll let you know how it turns out, but the one issue I flipped through looked good enough to get me to subscribe.

Fuel Magazine has just added an online Zine, it's awesome, here is a small sample (of 42 slides) to entice you

Gotta hand it to editor Luke Ray and his photography... awesome magazine with a superb layout
http://www.fuelzine.com/the-fuel-tank/beta-issue is the beta test and it's a flip style page turner like Flikr, you just look for the arrow on the right hand side in the middle of your screen

learned about it on http://lowtechblog.blogspot.com/

Car craft subscription prices, can vary drastically in the same issue. Isn't anyone there looking at their magazine before they send it?

pretty obvious isn't it?

Toyota Avalon: Now That's Entertainment!

When the average age of your customer is 66 years old, you have to get a bit creative to get some youthfulness into your marketing. This month’s Car & Driver has a full-page ad for the Toyota Avalon. The ad features three very beautiful women looking like they are going to a 1940’s dance at Hollywood’s Brown Derby.

The ad copy is all about the “Spacious Life” showcasing how roomy the Avalon is. No pun intended, it’s definitely a big selling point for the Avalon and what better way to connect with the consumer than by appealing to their youth, even if it was over a half century ago. Besides, the ad even may capture the interest of those not part of the WWII generation since ads with beautiful women is sure to intrigue any audience (sadly, this is probably what caught my interest if I’m being honest.)

There is nothing wrong or particularly great about the ad. I just found it an interesting way to appeal to your consumption target using some subtle sexiness while hearkening back to the youth of the customer in a tasteful way while still communicating the benefits of the vehicle.

Experience Continues Online

I was more surprised by a launch site that carried the "Travel Avalon Class" message into a campaign website.

Feature content transitions look like something out of MGM's That's Entertainment films. Content rotates to different theatrical stages where features are demonstrated by a host who looks like Ray Liotta and his female product demonstration model. They banter about "the big city", "the big easy", "those are fabulous shoes" and "welcome to the land of stars." It's all a bit cliche but that's the point. This is an attempt to take one back to a time when life was simple and Avalon's customers were young.

It really is a nicely done site though the transition between features takes awhile due to the creative assets loading and I do wonder about the patience of site visitors; although, if they do spend some time with the content it really is effective at explaining some very complex feature benefits that most site probably have an issue getting across to older customers. The Bluetooth and Navigation demonstrations are particularly effective here. Hopefully site visitors will notice the small font of the lower navigation so they can Build & Price and learn more.

Take a look at the site as my words can hardly explain what is going on here: http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/minisite/avalon/