The pilot issue of iLove magazine has just been sent to 13,500 carefully-targeted readers, ahead of plans to up the monthly circulation to 700,000.

The fashion and beauty title is the brainchild of Digital Space, which has offices in Northampton and Ilkley.

The firm has been working in the print-to-mobile arena for a number of years and has produced a variety of cross-media projects with major magazine and newspaper publishers. It has now decided to create its own product.

"Print, as a mechanism for triggering a response has far greater value than most people put on it," said director Adrian Fleming. "We have taken a piece of print and overlaid the sort of analytical values you’d get on an insightful web page."

The firm has partnered with Royal Mail to create a database of 702,000 women who meet its target audience criteria of being in the 18-44 age group, living in certain key locations, and being comfortable using technology to buy products. 

"It’s probably the most sophisticated consumer database for women in the UK," Fleming stated. "We don’t sell the magazine, we send it to people for free and with our partners at Royal Mail we have defined the perfect target market."

Digital Space has meshed its own technology with digital watermarks. Via its app readers of the magazine can access additional content, such as videos and ‘how to’ advice, as well as buying the products featured.

"Readers can literally hold their phone over the page and a button says ‘buy’ on every single product," Fleming added. "There are mathematics in every image, so if the same picture is on the cover and an inside page, we can tell which one the reader has gone through to the online content.

"This is a completely different approach, we are thinking in three dimensions."

Digital Space will use this feedback to hone the content. Fleming claimed the way iLove was able to connect with brands would prove a key differentiator in the hugely-competitive women’s magazine market.

He said the new venture represented a seven-figure investment for the business.

The 52pp pilot issue of the sub-A4 format, saddle-stitched title has been printed by Polestar. Fleming anticipates that pagination will increase to around 120pp when it is rolled out to the full 700,000 circulation in September.

A subscriber promotion involving a Chanel handbag is currently running on the iLove website ilovemagazine.co.uk.

Fleming spoke about interactive media and marketing at last month's Fespa event in London.