BE transforms and enriches its website offering and becomes the first media brand to launch a social shopping site

Lagardère Active seeks to strengthen its leading brands, increase their presence in the digital world, diversify their revenue streams and invest in new growth areas. That is why Be is now at the heart of a global digital project for the group.

Since Be is a global media brand that embodies a dynamic community built around a magazine and a website that set the trends in the fashion and beauty world…

And since Be is a brand that has a high impact on its preferred target and we want to offer the media that are best suited to our active, native digital community so as to be as close as possible to their aspirations, desires and media consumption…

Be will be the first brand to embody this structural digital project for the group: social shopping.

By enriching the Be.com website with an e-commerce section, we are offering our community a complete experience focused on fashion and beauty, with advice, suggestions, discussions and the option of making purchases. The new website, to be launched in October, will be developed with input from the community, which will be involved in the selection and process of buying items.

In this context, Be is evolving to become a monthly magazine –

a top-of-the-range, generational magazine that will set trends over a longer period of time, during which readers will be able to participate in its content. This frequency is in keeping with the rhythm of the fashion and beauty world, which is the essence of Be. It is based on a desire to adapt the frequency of its publication to the market and to readers’ needs. The idea is to create a true meeting place.

In addition to a small format that suits readers’ nomadic reading habits, a large format will also be offered for calmer, more leisurely reading. The first ‘new formula’ monthly magazine will come out at the beginning of October in tandem with the e-commerce site. Until then, Be will continue to appear weekly with a reworked summer schedule and intense editorial activity over the coming weeks.

For Franck Espiasse, editor of the Lagardère Active Women’s division, “Be is a long-term project and we are continuing to invest in developing this brand and its community, which we believe in now more than ever. We look forward to seeing you in October and presenting the enriched Be experience: the monthly version of Be magazine as well as the site, complete with a marketplace! We are proud of Be’s new look.”

Says Constance Benqué, president of Lagardère Publicité: “In close collaboration with the publisher, we are enthusiastic about the idea of redefining the boundaries for this 360° ecosystem and offering advertisers and their agencies new advertising areas.”

Be, a global media brand:

• 171,765 copies (DFP OJD 2011) of Be magazine are produced, as well as BeMag, an iPad version launched in March 2012.
• The www.be.com website brings together a very active community of 200,000 members and is permanently hosted by a team of seven bloggers, who are always on the lookout for any hint of new trends. It receives some 700,000 unique visits each month (Nielsen). 
• Be’s iPhone application, which exceeds 143,500 downloads, enables users to stay in touch and interact with the ‘Bees’ community. 
• Be’s Facebook page has over 60,000 fans. 
• An original TV series, ‘Bienvenue dans la Ruche‘ (‘Welcome to the Hive’), airs on the June channel and on Be.com.