Meet Rosie Nixon, HELLO!'s Creative Brand Ambassador

Rosie Nixon is Creative Brand Ambassador at HELLO! magazine. She was formerly HELLO!'s editor in chief and has worked for brand for the last 15 years. Rosie is an author of three novels and the Be Kind book (Harper Collins), and she is a mother of two. Rosie has worked in the magazine industry for most of her career and previously held senior positions at glossy women's titles including Grazia, Glamour and Red. She is a proud ambassador for the women's health charity Wellbeing of Women and anti-FGM charity Educate Not Mutilate, and is passionate about issues concerning women and children and their right to equality. Rosie is a passionate believer in the power of kindness and loves speaking on this subject. She is always looking for creative opportunities.

HELLO! has always been known for our glossy exclusives that take you into the lives of the rich, the royal and the fabulous. The media landscape has evolved enormously in 35 years, and while the way we convey that content has also changed, our USP is steadfastly the same: we take you one step closer into the lives of the personalities you're most interested in. Only now, instead of just once a week in print, those stories are also on digital, video and social media for our audience, 24/7.

TikTok and Snapchat are huge for us but print still has a very special place in our strategy - and it's not going anywhere. It provides a ‘lean-back' break from the always-on, hectic nature of the digital world. Our oversized pages and iconic design have given us standout, and we have a very loyal audience - everyone aged 18 to 80 reads HELLO! but our core reader is 35 to 55 - and we've gradually grown in market share.

Trust is everything. And we've worked hard at building relationships with the talent we feature and the teams around them - PRs, managers and agents. Our style of reporting is unapologetically positive and kind. We're always respectful while still practising responsible journalism. We do ask stars difficult, personal questions but we also create an environment of trust that makes them feel supported when telling their side of the story.

It's important that PRs get in touch with the right person on the editorial team. Do your research, look at the magazine and website to see who's across which topics and features. Don't just send a press release - contact the relevant person directly and include why you think your pitch will work for us: ‘I thought this would be particularly relevant to this section…' or ‘This idea is topical because it relates to…' It's nice to hear from a PR who's tried hard to think of a hook, an angle and show they have an understanding of the title and our audience.

Showbiz exclusives and weddings are still extremely popular, exciting and often a way to secure a front cover. That type of access goes above and beyond a piece of editorial that a star might do to promote their latest project. It's personal, and you get to see an aspect of their life that they don't normally make available to their fanbase at such a scale.

Robbie Williams's wedding [to Ayda Field] was a brilliant exclusive. It was a complete secret - nobody knew about it except for me and Robbie's manager. Even family they flew over to LA didn't know they were going to a wedding until it was actually happening. The wedding of George and Amal Clooney put us on the map globally and we now have a large, thriving US digital operation. That gives us a huge, combined audience of 60 million unique users per month through the UK and US websites, social media and print.

Interest in the British royal family has only grown, and we've certainly managed to harness the public's interest in them and their lives. A big royal event is always exciting and right now we're looking forward to the coronation of King Charles III and putting together our souvenir issue. Our online team will be reporting from the scene, with access to our royal editor, Emily Nash, who is part of the royal press pack.

Standouts for me during my 15 years at HELLO! include the weddings of William and Kate, Harry and Meghan and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. We took the audience one step closer with our multi-channel coverage and expert analysis. I was so proud too of how the team pulled together and worked so hard after the death of the Queen. Our weekly issues and special edition were respectful as well as hugely informative.

One of the biggest shifts from when I started at HELLO! has been the evolution of commercial partnerships. Back then it was about brands buying ad pages; now they want a more authentic, deeper relationship - not just a badging exercise. This new kind of revenue relationship feeds into why my role has evolved at HELLO!

My focus in my new role is on purpose and social impact content - things that really can make a difference to our audiences' lives. An editor-in-chief might once have worked solely on content but that role evolved into content extensions like hosting events, including our annual Inspiration Awards, which celebrate people who have done extraordinary things. I'll continue to present ‘In A Good Place', our wellbeing podcast featuring household names [including Carol Vorderman and Rochelle Humes]. And my new three-day week should allow me more time to be with my family and to work on my career as an author.

There are partnership opportunities to explore, and with so many different touchpoints - it's much less prescriptive than it used to be. Our commercial team might look at how a brand's brief could be applied to what we're working on already or what openings we might have across our platforms, like our regular partnership pages, HELLO! and HELLO! Fashion. Or one of the team might have a conversation with a brand, see a lot of synergy and then develop something exciting from scratch.

I'm proud of our Menopause Workplace Pledge, which we launched with the charity Wellbeing of Women. Around 2,000 companies and 3,000 individuals pledged to recognise the menopause as a stage in every woman's life and that there could be symptoms associated with it that might be difficult for some women to cope with in the workplace.

Clarins saw that the campaign was reaching an audience that was a target for its Super Restorative range, which the brand was relaunching specifically as a product for perimenopausal and menopausal women. We created a content hub on our website dedicated to perimenopause and menopause. Clarins was visible within that hub and we enlisted lots of our celebrity friends to neatly marry up some personal stories - ones we knew would get our audience's attention. [This included Rosie hosting an online video discussion on the subject with Gabby Logan, Nadia Sawalha, Lavina Mehta MBE and Katie Taylor.] It delivered the reach that the brand was looking for.

We've created physical products too. I worked on a wonderful split-revenue partnership with Jo Malone after I interviewed her and a friendship developed. She had launched her brand Jo Loves and together we created a candle that consumers could personalise. Being part of a family-owned, independent publisher allows us to think creatively, and as editor-in-chief I reported directly to the Chairman. So after lunch with Jo, I picked up the phone, explained the idea and he said, ‘Go for it!'. That's a lovely position to be in.
 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosie-nixon-89b99519/