Advertising

It's a baffling recent development to receive daily press announcements from publishers that are "proudly introducing" a new digital ad structure or employee. We've seen the Meredith Corporation promote Andy Sareyan to "brand officer...in charge of online platforms", Josh Stinchcomb and Alice McKown take over Conde Nast's new online advertising structure, and Chicago Tribune journalists writing about their own publisher's new cross-platform ad sales group.

Today, The Atlantic joins the ranks of its print-and-web contemporaries with its hiring of Breda O'Reilly as digital ad manager, "during a period of vigorous online expansion and innovation."

Why is this news? Traditionally, when print publications hire someone to oversee a sales force, there's no press release, no giant blurb sent out to other publications. And when blogs like Gawker or TMZ hire ad people, there is likewise little hooplah. It's only when print publishers (which have had such a hard time transitioning between the mega bucks of print ads and the scarce terrain of online media buyers) find someone to fill their digital ad sales spot that it's cause for celebration. Because it proves that The Atlantic (or Conde Nast, or Meredith, etc.) has finally calculated how to turn their pageviews into cash.

We have to give credit to The Atlantic though for at least trying something new with their online content: When talking to publisher Jay Lauf two weeks ago on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu, he spoke about The Atlantic Wire and the pitch to advertisers of intellectual readers as a specific marketing niche.

Related: The Atlantic Names Breda O'Reilly Digital Ad Manager

At last week's Dessert and Discourse event, Caroline Miller called print ads a "big con" because it's impossible to tell if they have any affect on consumers' decisions. Meanwhile, online advertisements can provide up-to-the-minute data about who is clicking through and buying products. Yet online ads will never cost as much as advertisements in magazines.

Today, the Magazine Publishers of America gave us another reason why magazine ads are so expensive: according to research, they are actually more effective than television and online ads in driving consumer action.

Citing a report from research firm Dynamic Logic, the MPA said that magazines were the most cost-effective advertising medium in terms of two measures of return on investment: people impacted per dollar spent and the cost per person.

"Time and time again, independent research has shown that without magazines, advertisers' media plans would not have been as effective or cost efficient," said Ellen Oppenheim, the MPA's executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

However, no matter how effective magazine advertising may be, it's still suffered greatly in the last few months -- ad revenue dropped 26.6 percent in the third quarter of this year alone, compared to the year before. Although this new report provides some hope that magazine advertisements can still provide the return on investment that marketers crave, who knows if they will have the money to spend on this expensive ads.

Read the full report here.

Related: Magazine Advertising Down In The Third Quarter

(Photo via flickr)

Check out this house ad in the October issue of Harper's Magazine.

The ad promises that you'll never find "content" in the pages of Harper's.

"Everybody gives you 'content.' But you'll never find that in Harper's Magazine" the ad boasts. "Instead you'll get literature. Investigative reporting. Criticism. Photojournalism. Provocative adventures. Daring commentary. And truth-telling as only Harper's Magazine can tell it."

What do you think of this new advertising platform? Are you sick of the word "content" as well?

New York media personality, blogger and entrepreneur Julia Allison has a new gig: corporate spokesperson.

Gawker reports that Allison has signed a year-long deal to make commercials for Sony.

According to Sony, Allison's involvement is part of a new integrated marketing campaign that is similar to last year's HDNA campaign. The concept involves a "panel" of celebrities who serve as brand ambassadors. Other celebs involved in this year's campaign include Justin Timberlake, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (who was in last year's commercials, see above), ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, "America's Next Top Model" judge Nigel Barker, comedienne Amy Sedaris and cinematographer Dion Beebe. The campaign will include national commercial spots, online banner ads, radio and newsprint ads, as well as in-store merchandising, Sony said.

Although the Gawker post about Allison's new venture is actually very nice to the notorious lifecaster, the best part of the piece is its comment section, in which Allison defends herself and her work. She notes that the Sony deal includes two national television spots, which she shot in June. We'll keep an eye out for those once the commercials start running next month. (Sony says they'll start in September and run through next year.)

Also in the comments, Allison revealed some details about a pilot she shot for Bravo for a reality show called "IT Girls." She said the pilot "sucked" and wasn't picked up. "This one was really bad," Allison said about the pilot. "Let's just put it this way: they chose NYC Prep over it. Yeah. Let that one sink in."

We're intrigued. Hey, Julia, any chance we can see this horrible pilot?

The Upscaling Of Julia Allison - Gawker

After the jump, Sony's full release about its new marketing campaign

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The Wall Street Journal's Emily Steel has a story today about thin September fashion magazines and dwindling revenue from fashion marketers.

The sad truth is, this year's September fashion books are paltry shadows of what once were the biggest, fattest magazines of the year. But, are fashion marketers diverting funds once pumped into glossy, full-page ads into online advertising options? Not exactly, although marketers like Louis Vuitton North America and Diane von Furstenberg had upped their online ad spending, Steel said.

"It doesn't amount to much yet, but it represents one of the few slices of the industry's marketing budget that are expanding."

Magazines need ad revenues to survive. And marketers will hopefully still go to magazines to advertise, even if they're buying Web ads, as long as the pubs can promise a consistent audience. This means that publishers and editors will have to work to keep improving their Web sites to draw readers with fresh content and innovative ideas.

We've seen a few Web site relaunches in the past year, but we imagine there will be more as magazine publishers start to understand the importance of the Web as as source of revenue and exposure. Magazines will be able to survive in print form if their leaders can think beyond the business model where print ads are king. It's about time.

Thick Fashion Magazines Are So Last Year Wall Street Journal

Two former ad executives from The New York Times have joined forces to launch a marketing and advertising sales rep company with an international focus. But they're not just throwing around their former employer's name just to get publicity for their growing company -- the Times is also one of their first clients.

Founders Claire LaRosa (left) and Warren Ho said their company, Media Sales International, will initially focus on Latin America before expanding into other foreign markets. The company will be producing special advertising economic reports for the Times' digital and print editions.

LaRosa worked at the Times for 31 years in various ad sales management positions. Ho worked alongside LaRosa for 10 years selling advertising for the Times, and he has also worked for Conde Nast Traveler and The Los Angeles Times.

"We have the expertise to help clients outside the United States target and reach key audiences, such as leaders in business and government in the States," LaRosa said. "The New York Times and nytimes.com provide extremely effective venues for reaching influential, decision-maker audiences. And the net combined audience of more than 20 million is a powerful story and offer."

(Photo via Media Sales International)

In the past, Air America Media faced an obstacle. As a progressive multimedia company, it is able to attract an educated, engaged audience that marketers covet, yet it was having trouble attracting large commercial advertisers due to its limited inventory and relatively small reach.

Thankfully, Air America is a member of Media Consortium, a think tank and support group of sorts for progressive media outlets. And it was at one Media Consortium event that Air America and other progressive niche outlets Mother Jones, The Nation and Alternet.org realized they were competing for the same ad dollars from progressive advertisers. They also saw that if they pooled their inventories, and the eyes and clicks of their readers and users, they could create a critical mass that would make them attractive to large commercial advertisers.

The four outlets joined forces to launch the Ad Progress Network, which they rolled out quietly a few weeks ago. They have paired with Adify to power the network and, according to Michael Bassik, chief digital officer at Air America, Adify has never worked with a network like it before.

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Following on the heels of the news last week that magazine advertising revenues were down last quarter (big surprise there), we then learned that BusinessWeek was up for sale. Could there possibly be some correlation?

Well, see for yourself. Nat Ives at AdAge.com has put together this depressing chart, marking how ad sales at business magazines -- BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune -- have plummeted over the past decade.

"Since 1999, the number of ad pages the three major business titles booked for the first half of the year has fallen by 64 percent," Ives reports. "In 1999, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune carried 6,193 ad pages in the first six months of the year. In 2009, that number shrank to 2,204. That means it's likely the final year tally for the three won't crack 4,500, a benchmark that all three managed to surpass on their own in 1999."

Ouch.

The Publishers Information Bureau just released its advertising revenue numbers for the first half of 2009, and it's not pretty. Rate-card-reported ad revenue totaled nearly $9.1 billion, down 21.2 percent from the same period last year. Ad pages were also down 27.9 percent, and the impact of the recession was felt across all top 12 ad categories, PIB said.

However, the first quarter of 2009 suffered a bigger decline (29.5 percent) in ad revenues than the second quarter, which posted a 22 percent drop. It's unclear whether this means the revenue is starting to recover.

There are some bright spots, however, including ads for culinary ingredients and seasonings, confectionery and snacks, hair products, hair accessories, men's hygienic products, soaps, cleaners, polishes and telecom, PIB said.

"Marketers remain extremely cautious in this challenging economic environment, which is reflected in the latest magazine advertising PIB data," Ellen Oppenheim, Magazine Publishers of America's chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "Sectors most severely affected by the downturn -- automotive, finance and retail -- show the greatest declines in ad revenue and paging during the first half."

Full release after the jump

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Last year, magazine publisher Meredith Corp. produced a report that revealed the rise of what Meredith dubbed "Gamma Women" -- influential and well-connected women who share and exchange information.

After identifying Gammas and touting their importance, Meredith is looking for ways to use its network of high-powered female readers as a marketing tool. Meredith, which publishes women's magazines like More, Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens, estimates that its Gamma audience is 55 million American women strong.

So now Meredith has partnered with women's marketing network SheSpeaks to launch a new product that will take advantage of its Gamma network, spread word about products through Meredith's magazines and promote products and brands through word of mouth. This new marketing approach can be tailored for each specific product or brand, Meredith said.

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