Digital and Print Get Married

Those of us old enough to recall Yahoo! Internet Life and eBay magazines know that digital and print “couples” have been down this aisle before. Early attempts to translate online brands to analog print books met deservedly with mixed success. What was born of digital generally is best left on digital platforms.

But like many antediluvian Web concepts that have been revived in recent years, repurposing online brands and even content offline gets a second try Get Married. Ironically, the bridal-planning quarterly’s October 2009 launch came as Condé Nast consolidated its three bridal books into Brides and during a year when almost everyone was eulogizing dead tree-and-ink media. What did these folks know that the rest of us didn’t? Well, that weddings are really all about the shopping.

“It is very much a shopping and trend guide,” says Get Married Media (GMM) founder (2007)/ceo and WE TV series host Stacie Francombe. GMM is really an e-commerce engine fueled by wedding favors, wedding party gifts, and invitations. “The response has been overwhelming,” she says. The 300,000 circulation Get Married is about to release its Summer issue. Print clearly drives people to the Web, as Francombe has seen a steady increase in both traffic and online ordering. In early 2010, getmarried.com, which has 246,000 registered users, was getting 357,000 monthly unique visitors.

“I didn’t know much about magazines,” says Francombe. “I was a TV produ-

cer.” Yet, she has magazine roots in relocating in 1997 to her current home in Atlanta to help launch the CNN Sports Illustrated cable network followed by producer stints at CNN International and TBS. Then, it was her own video production house until Get Married. “I just finalized the next cover. I love the tangible part of this, and I love when it comes together. It has been challenging in a great way.”

In order to drive online traffic and sales, which are the lion’s share of GMM revenues, the print product tries to create a virtuous circle of user movement. It takes items featured on the tv program along with some user-submitted picks, and then needs to cycle brides back to the site for ordering. One of the techniques involves the increasingly popular 2D mobile tagging system where users can snap an image of an in-book icon on an ad or editorial and have their smartphone directed to the site or a video. GMM is partnering with Microsoft to use its Microsoft Tag approach.

Francombe admits that there is still a learning curve among publishers for best using the technology. She is adding it to some editorial pieces, and most of the advertisers in the coming issue have taken up her sales team’s offer to include a tag in their ads. When the system works, a 2D Tag gives the magazine and its ad clients a unique kind of feedback, in that it can tell everyone which editorial and ad creative are activating readers more than others. “We are seeing it works really well on ads that have a very specific call out for why the readers should use the Tag,” she says. “We are also doing a better job of explaining the Tags throughout the issue.”

The path from tv to print to Web to product sale is especially attractive to advertisers looking for demonstrable return on investment. GMM doesnt list dresses ordinarily in its catalog but when Dessy Group designers introduced their Twist Dress, it got the full GMM treatment. “We put it on our show, made a video, and put a commercial on tv. Then, it went into the magazine on a page of dresses and we put a Tag on it,” says Francombe. The mobile tags on the Dessy items perform especially well, but they are only one more piece in creating a cross-media surround-sound circle of exposure that sells well with advertisers.

Steve Smith (popeyesmith@comcast.net) is digital media editor for min/minís b2b/ minonline.com. He posts regularly on minonline and directs the min Webinars. Smith also co-chairs min’s Digital Summits and, as ceo of Roving Eyeball Inc., he consults for a number of publishers in the digital space.