About John Brown / About customer magazines
 
  • What’s the history of John Brown?

    • John Brown started up with one man (named John Brown, funnily enough) and a dog operating out of an old boathouse in Fulham in the mid-1980s. The business grew in fits and starts through the 1990s, publishing customer magazines for a few select clients such as Virgin Atlantic, and consumer magazines for students (Viz), gardeners (Gardens Illustrated) and UFO spotters (Fortean Times).

      At the turn of the century we decided to move out of consumer magazines and put all our energy into the growing customer magazine business. In 2002, the company merged with Citrus Publishing and, two years later we bought specialist children’s content creator, Act-Two. John Brown (the man) left to spend more time with his family, but we liked the name so much we kept it even after he’d gone – so now all our customer content is published under the John Brown brand.

      Except that would be too neat. So, in 2006, we branched out into the catalogue business, buying the UK’s leading independent catalogue company, CodeLondon; and in Spring 2007 we rounded out our portfolio even further, acquiring the top-class digital, print and PR offering of Fingal, one of the UK’s leading integrated creative communications agencies.

      John Brown, CodeLondon and Fingal now make up the three parts of the whole that is the John Brown Group.

       
       
  • Which clients do you work with?

    • We work across a number of sectors from retail to financial services, automotive, travel, telecoms, Government departments and NGOs, and we create magazines for consumer audiences, B2B audiences and children. A full list of whom we work with can be found in the Clients section of this site.

      Our publications range from niche magazines with a circulation of around 5,000 to large print runs of over 7 million. And yes, creatively, the small titles are just as important to us as the bigger ones. No two clients are the same, and this is reflected in our work (which delivers fantastic results and wins more than a fair share of awards).

       
       
  • What services do you offer?
    • A whole range of stuff - some of which you might know us for and others you might be a little surprised about - ranging from customer magazines and print management to websites, catalogues to PR and event management, and children's educational resources to interactive TV.

      Infact if you have a communications task you need help with, chances are that we have the skills, experience and resources to create and deliver it - whatever channel or format you're considering. You can check out some examples of this work in the News section of this site or at Fingal or Code London, our sister companies in the John Brown group.

       
       
  • What’s the culture like at John Brown?

    • Best summed up as: always be original, never be precious, and have some fun along the way. We love producing clever, imaginative, great-looking magazines and communications, not because it’s smart or arty but because they’re just much more successful than plain, predictable ones. And, not to mention, a lot more rewarding for everyone – our clients, their customers and us.

       
       
  • What makes John Brown different?

    • Our scale and independence make us unique. Our people give us the final edge.

      John Brown is the UK’s biggest customer publishing and catalogue agency. We produce a range of customer communications including magazines, books, partworks and catalogues, as well as a growing amount of digital content. So, by working with us, you get all of the benefits of our scale – our experience, our infrastructure, our buying efficiencies, and the security that comes with working with the biggest in the market.

      But, as well as being the biggest, we’re also independent. This means that, unlike agencies that belong to marketing services’ networks, or those that are divisions within a larger newsstand publisher, we are totally focused on client service; we don’t have fixed ways of thinking and working, or intra-group 'politics' to consider. This, of course, leads to greater freedom, more innovation, and ultimately more effective solutions, from which our clients and their customers can benefit.

      Maybe because of this spirit of innovation, helped perhaps by our reputation amongst our peers, we attract the very best talent – with numerous industry awards, as well as our unbiased opinion, to back this claim up. So you can guarantee to have smart, creative and professional people, with good table manners, working with you every step of the way.

       
       
  • What are you most proud of?

    • Our reputation for design and innovation.

      We’re convinced we produce the best-looking and most striking customer magazines in the world, and there are a few bits of silver in the trophy cabinet to back us up. Design is incredibly important to us and we’re proud that there is no house style. Your magazine should visually capture your brand, not ours.

      But even the best-looking magazines then need clever distribution, cunning marketing, or some previously unthought-of format to get them noticed. We’re just as creative in our strategic thinking and in the functional side of our business, happiest when we’ve reinvented a part of the process everyone else has taken for granted for years.

       
       
  • What’s the relationship between John Brown, CodeLondon and Fingal?

    • We eat in the same canteen, we share lifts and resources – hell, we even talk to one another from time to time. And because of this, when we’re thinking about what we offer our clients or prospective clients, we always start from what will work for the reader or end-user – catalogue, magazine, digital content, PR and event management, POS material - maybe a combination of any of these channels and activities. This may sound (and is) obvious, but it doesn’t seem to be the case when you look at some communication strategies out there.

       
       
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