|
Iris Dorbian
Winner (consumer): Hearst Integrated Media – 30 Days of Fashion 2008
After two successful years, Hearst Integrated Media’s 30 Days of Fashion returned for a smashing encore in 2008. A multi-tiered program that coincides with an important time in the fashion industry calendar—New York Fashion Week—it gives readers a glimpse into the world of fashion via an amalgam of print and digital media, events and promotions. The program’s 2008 corporate sponsors were A Diamond is Forever, Estée Lauder and MasterCard. Participating Hearst magazines included Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Seventeen and Town & Country.
The 30 Days of Fashion 2008 program represents media integration at its most fluid. But that’s not say there weren’t enormous hurdles to overcome. “The biggest challenge was to keep the program new, fresh and exciting,” says Erick Neher, vice president of marketing for Hearst Integrated Media. “We had three sponsors with three very different goals so we were challenged to mold the program to work in each case.”
For MasterCard, the team organized a private dinner for VIP cardholders on the top floor of the Hearst Tower, which included a private tête-à-tête and sneak preview with hot designer Tory Burch. For the Diamond is Forever campaign, a returning sponsor, Hearst hosted a star-studded event in support of Russell Simmons’ Diamond Empowerment for Africa organization. And lastly for Estée Lauder, Hearst sent magazine reps to department store events across the country during September so they could interact directly with consumers.
A highlight of the print side of the program was a 92-page magazine supplement, which featured original creative for sponsor A Diamond is Forever, as well as a collector’s edition of exclusive fashion photographs by world-renowned photographer Mario Sorrenti. One million copies of the supplement were polybagged with the September 2008 issues of participating Hearst magazines.
Digital also played a starring role as a completely revamped site, 30DaysofFashion.com, acted as the nerve center for the program. The site, which was live from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, 2008, included a cornucopia of online giveaways, fashion video podcasts, celebrity Q&As, banner ads and blog integration for all sponsors, heavy promotion for all participating magazines and extensive sponsor-logo presence. The program also received extensive promotion on CBS’ The Insider. Host Lara Spencer regularly mentioned the program on-air and served as a guest blogger on 30DaysofFashion.com.
Nontraditional media also had its share of play with the program. During the crucial month of September, outdoor advertising, replete with sponsor logos, promoted the initiative in the form of bus posters, taxi-top ads and street banners. Also, 30 Days of Fashion-branded taxies were deployed in front of the Bryant Park tents (Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan is the current venue of New York Fashion Week) at opportune times throughout fashion week.
The 30 Days of Fashion 2008 program reached 3,450,000 fashion-focused consumers, with each promotional ad in participating Hearst magazines reaching 38 million readers. The program’s Web site generated over 790,000 impressions with visitors viewing at least five pages per site visit and spending an average of three minutes on the site. Also, an average of 3,850 unique visitors registered each day for the daily giveaways.
The time period of the 30 Days of Fashion 2008 program was September 2008 for print; August-October 2008 for digital; and September 2008 for events.
Winner (b2b): TechWeb – Data Center of the Future
In 2008, TechWeb, a division of United Business Media, partnered with Cisco to inaugurate an immersive and integrated thought leadership program that would showcase Cisco’s strengths as a technology forerunner. Entitled “Data Center for the Future Integrated Program,” the initiative, which was designed to help Cisco achieve considerable audience share among their target market—companies with 1,000 employees or greater—was launched on Sept. 8, 2008. The first phase ran from that date through March 8, 2009.
The hub of the program is the Data Center of the Future Concierge site (http://www.thedcofthefuture.com), which includes a vast array of components ranging from webcasts and virtual events to message boards and online ad units. One notable feature of the Concierge program are the webcasts, which deliver content relevant to Cisco and its tech partners—and their potential customers—in a Q&A format. During the initial phase of the program (Sept. 8, 2008, to March 8, 2009), nine webcasts were presented.
Other highlights of that period were two virtual events and extensive promotion that encompassed geo-targeted e-mails and banner ads for international audiences in the U.K., Italy, Sweden and Germany.
As demonstrated by its various touch points, the program exceeded goals and achieved a high level of interaction with its target audience. The Data Center of the Future program achieved 125% of lead delivery goals for all elements combined, generating a total of 5,656 leads, 4,652 of which were unique. Also, 53% of the client’s top 750 enterprise companies were reached with this program, and 39% of decision makers who have a planned Data Center project within the next year asked for follow-up by the client.
The program is currently in its second phase and will run through Sept. 30, 2009.
Honorable Mentions:
American Express Publishing and Time Inc. – Travel + Leisure City Guides for Infiniti: American Express Publishing and Time Inc. Corporate Sales & Marketing teamed up in February 2008 to produce Travel + Leisure City Guides, a fully integrated marketing program to elevate brand awareness and maximize profits for shared advertising partner Infiniti. Thanks to advertising content on CNN networks, TravelandLeisure.com, CNN.com, an online sweepstakes, and other promotions, Travel + Leisure City Guides contributed to a huge jolt in brand awareness.
Hanley Wood LLC – The Site Commander: To showcase new concepts and technologies in building and construction, Hanley Wood created The Site Commander, a campaign featuring a tour involving three custom-made Site Commander trucks from sponsor Lenox Tools, Dodge and Tools of the Trade magazine, along with a microsite outlining the full tour calendar, information about the trucks, sponsor pages, driver reports and a gallery of images and videos. The Site Commander campaign served as a great networking tool for workers in the industry, and generated more than 30,000 sales leads.
Hearst Integrated Media – Infiniti House of Inspiration: For five days in August 2008, Hearst Magazines promoted Infiniti’s luxury automobiles with The Infiniti House of Inspiration, an event-packed program aligning the vehicles with innovative design at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California. Along with events such as an opening night reception, women’s luncheon, Town & Country Evening of Elegance, Ride & Drive and a VIP dinner, Hearst extended the Infiniti House of Inspiration message with a print and digital campaign involving five Hearst publications and a special microsite to ensure maximum success for the exhibition.
Back to min's IMA and Sweet 16
|
|
