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In the year and a half that Anne Balaban has been with Every Day with Rachael Ray, she has made defining and communicating her brand’s message her prime mission. Using the findings of a study she developed, Balaban was .jpg) able to reposition the brand and generate an ad revenue increase of 25% in 2008, thus making Every Day with Rachael Ray—quite a feat for a publication in the food and women’s lifestyle categories in a down economy. As the brains behind the brand’s tagline—“Keeping it Fun, Keeping it Easy, Keeping it Real”—Balaban was able to go beyond the sphere of food and broaden the magazine’s appeal for potential advertisers.
Balaban, who previously worked at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, where she developed the company’s first media business model to sell integrated programs, has been a key driver in aligning her sales and marketing goals with the philosophy espoused by her iconic founder and editorial director who says you can “live a rich life without being rich.” What has resulted is a brand that expresses an accessible, girl-next-door attitude, which has attracted prestigious advertisers. She has broken non-endemic categories with clients such as Target, T-Mobile, Aveeno and Wal-Mart, while still growing the endemic categories with clients such as Barilla, Kraft and Horizon Organic Milk.
One of Balaban’s most notable initiatives was the Every Day with Rachael Ray’s Holiday Gift-Away sweepstakes in the December/January 2009 issue, which gave readers a total of $91,230 in free gifts. Products advertised in the issue were incorporated in prizes that ranged from an Aveeno spa package to a T-Mobile G1 phone. Sponsors were integrated into multi-platform efforts that included the magazine, the Rachael Ray syndicated TV show, the Web site and a Facebook “Ginormous Gift-Away” event page. The campaign garnered a total of 45.2 million impressions for the program’s sponsors, with coverage in such outlets as the New York Post, CafeMom.com and Fox News AM Radio.
Whipping Up Revenue
Another innovative initiative masterminded by Balaban and her team was the “Super Suppers,” which was developed to carry advertisers’ messages beyond the printed page. Here Every Day with Rachael Ray partnered with Super Suppers, one of the nation’s leading take ’n’ bake meal companies, for a national meal assembly program, which folded in advertisers’ ingredients into the magazine’s recipes. During the promotion, consumers were able to buy Every Day with Rachael Ray entrees at the nearly 150 Super Suppers locations across 37 states. The program, which encompassed in-book and online content as well as e-mail blasts, increased exposure for the advertisers that included Nestle, Maxwell House and Uncle Ben’s.
Balaban’s expertise at connecting with clients, in addition to creating compelling initiatives relevant to them, has not gone unnoticed. “While many of our CPG brands are endemic to Every Day with Rachael Ray, Anne never takes our business for granted,” says Karen Finelli, VP/group magazine director for ZenithMedia, who has been working with Balaban for four years. “Anne and her team have been instrumental in addressing our needs as marketers to be more innovative in delivering a consistent brand message across multiple channels. She has enabled us to deliver a significant ROI for our brands via these integrated platform opportunities.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Risa Crandall, VP/Publisher, Scholastic Parents Media: Since joining the company in 2005, Crandall has led Scholastic to increased print growth by 28%, online growth by 378% and custom project growth by 52% from 2007-2008. To combat lack of brand awareness in the advertising community, Crandall went on a media tour, making appearances on such outlets as The Today Show. Her success is evident in an impressive client list, which includes Nestle, Kraft, Kellogg’s and Wal-Mart.
Christina Grdovic-Baltz, VP/Publisher, Food & Wine: Not only has Grdovic-Baltz generated great numbers, she has created great business relationships as well. Partnerships like the one she struck with Bravo’s Top Chef have positioned Food & Wine as the advertising page leader in the epicurean field for the past eight years. Grdovic-Baltz joined Food & Wine in 1996 as event marketing manager, and became publisher in October 2007, helping ad pages in Food & Wine increase by 57% and ad revenue increase fourfold since 1997.
Michelle Myers, Publisher, People StyleWatch: As the first publisher of StyleWatch since it began publishing 10 times a year in 2007, Myers hired a complete sales team (it previously shared a sales team with People), and has led that team to a 73% increase in revenue year-to-year. Ad pages increased 36% and 80 new advertisers came on board. To further build relationships with clients, Myers presented ad partners with the “Celebrity Style Report,” a study conducted by GfK Roper which uncovered celebrities’ influence on consumer purchasing to better help advertisers understand consumers.
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