Esme Rottschafer Explains The Creative Growth of INCITE Magazine

Esme is the Editor-in-Chief of INCITE Magazine and Chief Strategy Officer for FIELDMARSHAL. Esme feels privileged to have to opportunity to work on the INCITE team, 5 years ago she worked with Canada Post as a publicist on their transformation strategy to re-tool their business for the future, and then again recently to reinvent INCITE to help direct mail become relevant again in the marketing world in this age of technology. Together Esme and the Canada Post team re-tooled the magazine to take on more of a platform role - morphing into a full-clout leadership content platform and magazine. Now a year in, Esme feels like they have their pace in place and feels fully established because this time last year they had gone from postal service to a full publishing service overnight. “Everything has changed,” Esme describes, they had to find out not only what kind of content marketers were interested in, but had to figure out where they would get this content from, and how they would present it in the contexts of today. INCITE showcases curated case studies, thought leadership and infographics that help readers not only find new ideas and inspiration but understand how they can implement these strategies into their own lives.

One thing INCITE Mag is known for is its creative and sensory covers, with each edition being released with different mediums like wetsuit fabric, bubble wrap, chocolate smelling paper, and most recently a glowing and vibrant orange coloured paper. “We’ve created a more intimate, handheld experience,” Esme explains, hoping to evoke stronger interaction with the content within. Digital fatigue is a major problem these days for a lot of people because of the restrictions COVID-19 has had on our regular lives. Esme says utilizing physical mediums right now is a great way to freshen the mind and take a break from the screen. Using physical mediums allows for the user to experience a more tactile curiosity and create emotion, things that digital just does not always hold up. They’re working hard to find the happy medium for both digital and print, “Integration is happening, digital is kind of being pulled into the back end of every channel,” INCITE tries to show us how digital and print media can be implemented into any project and have both routes be just as successful.

You can sign up and subscribe to INCITE Magazine for free here, and it will be physically mailed wherever you prefer, as well as a digital version directly to your device.

Written by Juliana Bermudez