Total Integrated Program: ESPN, ESPN The Magazine's Next 2007
Iris Dorbian

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Ever since its first issue was published in March 1998, ESPN The Magazine, like its parent publisher, the ESPN sports network, has been at the forefront of professional and college sports reportage. Its Next Athlete Award, which began nine years ago, is given out every year to an athlete considered a future leader or trailblazer in his or her sport. The winner is featured in a cover story in an issue dated early in the year known as the NEXT issue. This year was no exception and on January 31, the NEXT issue, dated February 12, honoring Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, hit the newsstands.

ESPN The Magazine celebrated this event with a program that took place during Super Bowl Weekend in Miami, site of the NFL Super Bowl. It not only engaged athletes but readers on issues ranging from training routines to medical and nutritional concerns. The Next Integrated platform boasted three key components: a NEXT Big Block Party, a celebrity and fan event in Miami; a NEXT page on ESPN.com where fans voted for the NEXT Athlete of the Year (220,000 tallies in 10 days); and “ESPN After Dark,” a TV show taped in Miami’s exclusive Design District that highlighted exclusive interviews with sports VIPs, culminating in a concert by hip-hop legend LL Cool J.

Targeting the 18-34-year-old demographic, ESPN The Magazine attracted a diverse assortment of advertisers: PlayStation 3, Cadillac, vitaminwater, DIRECTV, Diageo, Olevia, Benihana, NetJets and DreamSeats. According to Naama Milima, who formerly worked on event marketing and is now the marketing manager for ESPN The Magazine, all of the clients benefited from their association with the NEXT program. For instance, vitaminwater had new bottles featuring athletes such as football quarterback Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles and quarterback Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers, designed by students from Miami’s prestigious Design and Architecture Senior High School (D.A.S.H.).

Using advertiser feedback as a guideline, ESPN The Magazine is already planning what they’re going to be doing next year in Scottsdale, Ariz., site of the 2008 NEXT program. “We’re always looking for upgrades,” explains Milima, “what’s going to be next, the thing that makes it different each year. It’s an ever-evolving franchise.”
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