GQ Recommends
GQ Recommends is a one-stop shop for all the stuff the editors love. All items are independently selected and sourced from retailers that have the brand’s approval. A new and more direct way of engaging with GQ’s suggestions.
Product Design · Branding · UI Design
A new experience.
GQ Recommends unique preposition aims to leverage the brand’s built trust and recognition and connect it to pieces of the commerce business: Affiliate, Ad served E-comm products, branded content, merchandising, licensing, and subscription boxes.
Affiliate link Click Through Rate
is 7x bigger than rest of GQ.
Revenue /1000 affiliate link impressions
Is 10x bigger than the rest of GQ’s commerce.
Distribution Strategy.
The strategy to drive organic traffic to GQRecommends was based on the concept of seamlessly integrating gateways into the commerce on GQ’s main experiences. The audience is used and to some level expects to engage with products – allowing the new vertical’s presence to happen not in a forced and aggressive manner, but rather enhancing and adding to the main experience.
GQRecommends makes itself present in all levels of the GQ experience, from simple additions to the website’s structure such as a link in the navigation and the exploration of it’s typical promo units, to more immersive solutions, such as it’s integration to the editorial schedule and product-driven units on index pages.
Create Opportunity for Branded Content.
The creation of the GQRecommend’s sub-brand not only allowed GQ to serve it’s audience in a different way, but also allowed the brand to explore new monetization models.
A purely commerce-driven experience unloads some of the weight of keeping the brand editorial voice overpowering, in addition to opening new opportunities in branded content.
Talent and Press.
The project would be impossible without the incredible talent of Doug Seidman, head of product and Hugo Broche, Design Director.
GQRecommends was featured on a few important publications, such as Digiday.