How Man of Many Built Australia's Most Valuable Men's Lifestyle Audience With Gleam
Learn how Australia's largest men's lifestyle publication used Gleam and Mailchimp to build their most valuable owned asset - a compounding email list that underwrites everything from ad revenue to editorial commissioning.
Author
Charlotte Czarnota
United Kingdom
Content Marketer
Products Used
Integrations Used
Date of Publication
Man of Many x Gleam
Over twelve years and nearly 300 campaigns, Man of Many has used Gleam to build the email list that underwrites their entire business.
Man of Many is Australia's largest men's lifestyle publication, covering premium gear, watches, fashion, travel, and culture for a highly engaged audience of Australian men.
Since launching, Man of Many has become one of Australia's most-read independent media brands. They have been named Media Brand of the Year at the Mumbrella Awards 2025, Website of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards in 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025, Best Media Platform at the B&T Awards 2023, and Best Native Advertising at the Digital Media Awards Asia 2024.
They have been running Gleam competitions for 12 years.
The Challenge
For a media brand, the email list is the business. It underwrites newsletter ad revenue, drives direct traffic, and shapes editorial commissioning. Building it - and keeping it engaged - is the core marketing challenge.
Man of Many needed a way to grow their subscriber list consistently, bring new readers into the brand, and give existing subscribers a reason to keep opening. The approach had to feel like Man of Many, not like a generic giveaway bolted onto a media site.
The Strategy: Prize Selection Is Editorially Led
Most brands pick a prize to attract the biggest possible audience. Man of Many picks prizes their editorial team would write about anyway.
Flagship audio gear. Premium watches. High-end luggage. Home tech. Products that match Man of Many's voice and sit naturally alongside the content their readers are already consuming. The prize is not a separate marketing decision - it is an editorial one.
Scott Purcell, Co-Founder, explains the logic:
"Prize selection is editorially led, not promotion led. We pick products our team would write about anyway - flagship hero items that match Man of Many's voice. The WH-1000XM6 is representative: prizes our readers would be researching regardless."
This is why the Sony WH-1000XM6 Flagship Giveaway produced 58 actions per entrant. The audience that came for the competition was the same audience that reads Man of Many's gear coverage. They were not just entering for a prize - they were engaging with a brand they already trusted.
The Campaign
The Sony WH-1000XM6 Flagship Giveaway gave participants the chance to win Sony's flagship wireless headphones by completing a series of entry actions. Each action reflected how Man of Many's audience already engages with the brand: following channels, visiting editorial content, and engaging with brand prize partners through sponsor visit steps.
The Man of Many editorial article on the product sat alongside the campaign, giving entrants the context behind the prize - not just the what, but the why.
The Sony WH-1000XM6 Giveaway is a good example of what a single campaign looks like within that programme:
Impressions: 30,807
Actions completed: 302,994
Users entered: 5,205
Conversion rate: 16.90%
Actions per user: 58
58 actions per entrant is the number that defines this campaign.
It is not a figure you see from a broad prize-hunter audience. It reflects an editorially engaged readership treating the giveaway as part of the Man of Many content experience - completing every action because they are genuinely interested in what each one connects them to.
12 Years and 297 Campaigns
The Sony campaign is one example from a 12-year programme. Man of Many has shipped 297 campaigns on Gleam, building a system rather than a series of one-offs.
Scott describes the value of that consistency:
"If we had to quantify a single outcome from 12 years on Gleam, it's compounding email subscriber growth. The list we've built off the back of giveaways is the single most valuable owned asset Man of Many has, and it underwrites everything from newsletter ad revenue to direct traffic to editorial commissioning."
The mix is deliberate. Flagship hero campaigns run alongside smaller prizes that keep the calendar moving. The big campaigns do the heavy lifting. The smaller ones maintain the rhythm.
The below graph shows the reporting tab from 1 campaign, so you can imagine how these kinds of results combine to sustain massive growth over time:
Closed-Loop Measurement: Gleam and Mailchimp Together
Man of Many connects Gleam with Mailchimp so that every entrant is tagged by campaign and source, dropped into a welcome series, and then merged into the main Man of Many newsletter list.
They do not run separate lists per giveaway. Entrants get a coherent Man of Many experience from the first email - not a disconnected flow that feels like a different brand.
Mailchimp performance feeds directly back into how the next campaign is designed. Open rates by entry source identify which channels deliver real readers versus prize hunters. Segment performance after the welcome series reveals which prize categories produce the most engaged long-term subscribers. Some prize types have been quietly retired over the years because the data showed audiences disengaging fast, even when entry numbers looked impressive.
Scott's framing is the clearest description of why this matters:
"The most valuable thing the Gleam to Mailchimp combination unlocks is closed-loop measurement. Gleam captures the moment of intent, Mailchimp captures the long tail of behaviour. Either tool on its own gives you half the picture. Together you can answer the only question that actually matters - which is whether a giveaway entrant becomes a real reader."
The Customer Journey
The journey usually starts on social or in the newsletter. A reader sees a giveaway promoted in Man of Many's owned channels, clicks through to the Gleam entry page, and completes a set of actions - following channels, visiting a sponsor page, sharing with a friend. The editorial article on the prize product sits alongside the entry, so readers arrive with context.
Once they enter, Gleam hands them to Mailchimp. The welcome series introduces them to Man of Many properly. From there they fold into the regular newsletter.
Giveaway-acquired subscribers take slightly longer to warm up than someone who found Man of Many through an article they were already reading. But their long-term engagement evens out over the first six months. They are not lower quality - they are just earlier in the relationship.
Referral entries convert into engaged subscribers at a higher rate than cold entries. A reader who arrives because a friend referred them already has a layer of trust before they even enter.
Scott describes it:
"Gleam sits at discovery and delight. It's the moment a stranger meets the brand. Mailchimp is the relationship layer that turns that moment into a habit. Editorial is the connective tissue that makes both feel like Man of Many rather than a generic giveaway flow."
What You Can Take Away From This Campaign
Prize selection is a strategic decision, not a budget decision. Man of Many picks prizes their editorial team would cover anyway. The prize signals what the brand is about and attracts the audience most likely to stay subscribed. A prize that is off-brand will fill your list with the wrong people.
Giveaway-acquired subscribers are only as valuable as the nurture that follows. Mailchimp performance data feeds back into campaign design. Open rates and segment engagement after the welcome series tell you which prizes attract real readers and which attract prize hunters. That feedback loop is what makes 12 years of campaigns get better over time.
Closed-loop measurement is what makes both tools worth running together. Gleam captures intent. Mailchimp captures behaviour. Together they answer whether a giveaway entrant becomes a real customer.
Consistency compounds. 297 campaigns over 12 years is not 297 individual tactics - it is a system. Each campaign builds the list. Each list send builds the habit. Each engaged subscriber underwrites the next campaign's reach.
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