Slicks Hit the Road
Maybe Willie Sutton thought his questioner was kidding when the sly stickup man was asked, “Why do you rob banks?” And that’s why he quipped, “Be-cause that’s where the money is.”
So maybe it’s a similar no-brainer for magazine publishers to promote their titles with events held in places where their readers are – and where advertisers know they’ll reach them. Glamour and Mademoiselle stage fashion shows and set up makeup booths on college campuses, some of the same ones where Sports Illustrated invites would-be subscribers to rollerblade and shoot hoops. Playboy annually hits the slopes to ply hedonistic skiers with its “life, liberty and pursuit of dreams” credo. Runner’s World is a regular sponsor at the New York Marathon. Who’d you expect, Cigar Aficionado?
Hey, don’t laugh (or cough). Like Sutton, who if he’d dodged the slammer might have alternately filched loot from rich people’s homes, payroll offices and banks, some magazine promotions managers are altering their programs to solicit readers outside the typical haunts. And with them they’re bringing – or at least trying to – a varying set of advertisers and sponsors.
“Every magazine is trying to grow its advertising base,” says John Schenck, creative services director of Fortune, “but an idea Fortune is promoting is that, in the ’90s, business is not a niche but a lifestyle.” That’s why the Time Inc. fortnightly is going after high-end apparel makers, a shift reflected editorially, too, with the magazine’s contents broadened to include fashion articles.
Ideally, magazines want to attain both goals, solidifying their core audience in a logical setting with typical sponsors looking to add value to their advertising investments, while also tweaking a promotion in hopes of luring latent readers and advertisers. Glamour, for example, is in the midst of its fourth annual college tour, a 10-campus blitz of two-day affairs attracting coeds who know to expect samples of Tommy Girl perfume, a Bebe fashion show and other Glamour-ous activities. Less predictable is the theme of this year’s Ultimate College Tour, which aims to help graduating students make the transition from college to career. So at many of the booths, as well as in a corresponding special advertising section, “The Ultimate Guide to Getting a Job,” in the Conde Nast magazine’s October issue, there’s not only product but also practical pointers such as what to wear on casual Fridays, questions to ask during an interview, and writing a winning resume. Additionally, each topic is sponsored by an advertiser in the special ad section.
“This is valuable information gathered from a survey Glamour did with top female executives,” says Ruth Kahn, the magazine’s merchandising editor. The results were shared with participating advertisers, who could use it to tailor their presentations on the tour. “This is an extension of the magazine,” states Kahn. “Our goal is to bring all our sponsorships to a reader level. It’s not to generate circulation, but to bring the in-magazine section to the readers.”
Stablemate Mademoiselle is on a similar college tour through Thanksgiving, though Life-O-Matic travels to twice as many campuses and has a different approach from Glamour’s, asserts Gary Armstrong, Director of Creative Services and Marketing. “Ours is a marketing tour as opposed to a merchandising tour,” he says. “We know that modern marketing is about demonstrating differences between brands.” As evidence, he cites a booth sponsored by Helene Curtis’s Salon Selectives, where several types of shampoos and conditioners are sampled.
Mademoiselle has added live bands to its usual mix of sampling, interactive activities, and fashion shows, plus a women’s health-care tent, dubbed Wellness Central, where OTC advertisers are featured. The tour’s five title sponsors each paid a $48,500 fee, and ponied up an additional $15,000 to be in the September issue’s advertorial section, as well as whatever paging commitments were made.
A “more serious, less event-like” approach will be taken when Mademoiselle lands at six graduate schools with a promotional gig this spring, says Armstrong. “We have a lot of upscale advertisers that want to reach our readers.” While such supporting sponsors have yet to be lined up, topics they’ll be able to tie into include fashion and makeup demonstrations, career counseling and etiquette.
Of course, women’s magazines have plenty of company in bringing promotions directly to students. Just as professional sports leagues rely on colleges to train their future players, marketers see campuses as breeding grounds for tomorrow’s consumers. And they team up with magazines to reach them while they’re still establishing brand images and loyalties. Sports Illustrated, which has partnered with MarketSource to sell sponsorships to its 10th annual Campus Fest – billed as the largest interactive college promotional tour – is targeting a segment of the 15.5 million students with purchasing power of $80 billion with two-day extravaganzas at 25 institutions from August through April. The 30,000 square-foot show will also be on location for 30 days (up from 10 last year) during spring break in Panama City, Florida.
“Sports Illustrated is the number-one magazine on campus, and we wanted to be an active brand to student bodies,” reports Kirsten LaMotte, SI’s director of sports marketing and promotion. “We’re successful not only in promoting the magazine, but also in bringing advertisers to students.” Those advertisers, such as Panasonic, Pantene, Chevrolet, Milk (Where’s Your Mustache?) and Citibank, pay from $110,000 to $335,000 for various levels of category-exclusive sponsorship programs, which include signage, sampling, couponing, sweepstakes and “ownership” of sports events like basketball, in-line skating, jousting, human bowling and something called the bungee run. The magazine itself, perhaps shoring up its image to an audience being heavily courted by the new ESPN Magazine, is soliciting subscriptions for the 1/2rst time.
Wenner Media’s Rolling Stone has two campus traveling promotions – its sixth annual Rock & Roll Bowl (sponsors include Ford, Gillette, Ocean Pacific and Ray Ban) and the second AT&T Rolling Stone Covers Tour – yet the publisher is going elsewhere to support Men’s Journal and its annual Buyer’s Guide. Beginning the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the magazine will stage a month-long Essential Gear Expo at the gigantic Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. “The guide looks at all the new guy stuff – electronics, sports and athletic equipment, camping gear, computers, watches – which also reflects our advertising,” says Wenner director of promotions Donya Vance. “The Expo brings the Buyer’s Guide to life, with demonstrations, workshops and presentations by Men’s Journal editors, writers and 1/2eld experts. There will be promotions with retailers in the mall that are actually selling the stuff, including counter cards and tent cards at point of purchase.” Among partnering advertisers, which also buy pages in the guide, are Schwinn, Wilson, Kawasaki, Nike, The North Face, Sony, Nikon, and Motorola.
Deborah Cavanagh, who was named executive director of group marketing at Wenner Media last month, is one of those promoters looking to tweak existing programs. “My approach on building cross-marketing partnerships is that we have a very strong editorial franchise and relationship with readers. That’s what we can deliver,” says Cavanagh, who orchestrated Self’s pink ribbon campaign in support of breast cancer awareness and Men’s Health’s Race to Deliver, to assist HIV/AIDS victims. “I’m not a huge proponent of dreaming up big umbrella programs and offering them to advertisers. I think it’s more valuable to sit down with advertisers and understand their objectives, to help them problem-solve on the strength of our editorial franchise.”
Hobnobbing with potential new advertisers was the essence of a Fortune breakfast panel meeting at the recent Magic Show, a yearly gathering in California of men’s apparel makers. But instead of wooing supporters of Fortune’s editorial franchise – business – the topic was fashion, an area the magazine is now covering in an attempt to include more lifestyle articles and to compete with the likes of GQ and Esquire.
“The idea was to talk about marketing challenges in the ’90s for high-end apparel advertisers, designers and retailers, but for us it was a strategic move to establish Fortune as an avenue for high-end apparel advertising,” says creative services director Schenck. “We need to find ways to get that message out rather than with direct mail, presentations to advertisers and other contacts through salespeople. This put us in front of a large audience in retail and high-end apparel to give attention to Fortune beyond the boardroom suite.” Schenck adds that Ralph Lauren and Saks Fifth Avenue are among the promotion partners that have since come into Fortune, which is encouraging the publisher to create similar events.
A somewhat opposite situation exists at Playboy. Despite its long-standing reputation as a lifestyle magazine and the emergence of parent Playboy Enterprises as a brand with video, cable and Internet extensions, Hugh Hefner’s brainchild does surprisingly little in the promotional arena. Hoping to change that is Stu Zakim, recently installed as the corporate vice president of promotions. For instance, he’d like to invite advertising partners to the previously un-sponsored Playboy Jazz Festival. “The 21st one is next June, and I’d really like to broaden its scope and find some dynamic sponsors,” says Zakim, formerly with Rolling Stone and Universal Pictures. “It’s like a gold mine for promotions.” He suggests that certain advertisers that may be opposed to appearing in the magazine might buy into the Jazz Festival.
Meanwhile, Zakim is working on this year’s Playboy WinterFest. Last year’s sponsor, Smirnoff, had yet to re-sign for the program, which comprises skiing and snowboarding events at five different resorts across the country. “We’re going after clothing, sunglasses, new media, music, and ski equipment companies,” he says. Other events Zakim envisions Playboy becoming promotionally involved with are motor sports, consumer electronics, and concert series.
Runner’s World, on the other hand, has no problem promoting the magazine with its core constituency. “We’ve done a sponsorship with the New York City Marathon since it started,” says Vern Walther, the Rodale Press monthly’s Consumer Marketing Director. “Because the advertising community is so important in New York, the marathon provides us with some on-site things.” For example, Runner’s World charters a bus to shuttle important clients running the race to the Staten Island starting point.
The magazine also reaches down to the local level with “point of sweat” promotions. Runner’s World lends its name and logo to hundreds of small race organizers to use on duffel bags, sunglasses, running logs, gloves, and other running-related products that are given to participants. In return, Runner’s World gets their names and addresses for direct mail purposes.
It wasn’t around when Sutton was behind bars, but can you guess what magazine’s promotions would have been ideally targeted to the famed jailbird? Money, of course.
