Can Personalized Ads Save Magazines?

Some Popular Mechanics subscribers got something extra with their November issues. The issue was bundled with an outsert from Hewlett-Packard that greeted them by name and showed a scene specific to their hometown. Inside the issue was a 16-page insert that gave readers locations where they could buy HP products near their homes.

As for the results, 3 percent of the 300,000 subscribers who got the customized issue entered the contest, which is in the ballpark of the response rate for direct mail. But of that 3 percent, 85 percent clicked on the QR codes in the insert.