Magazine Publishers of America
Hearst Rakes in Green with Unique eBay Cross-Title Sponsorship
14 Brands Develop Content Organic to Eco-Themes for April Issues
By Tony Case for MPA
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In the latest iteration of its “30 Days” franchise, Hearst Magazines has launched the innovative “30 Days of Green” editorial and advertising program across the company’s diverse portfolio of magazine brands.
The project, sponsored by eBay, promotes a pro-environment message among 70 million readers of the April issues of Hearst’s 14 titles. It marks the first time the company has run an integrated program across all its properties, which include Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and O, The Oprah Magazine.
At a time when publishers are looking for unique ways for advertisers to promote their brands, “30 Days of Green” represents the largest single print investment ever by eBay—pegged at seven figures—whose gatefold wraps each magazine’s two-page, green-themed content.
In conjunction with “30 Days of Green,” eBay created the microsite eBay.com/GreenTeam, aimed at the eco-conscious and featuring such content as a green buying guide and editorial content from Hearst’s own green-lifestyle site, TheDailyGreen.com. As part of the deal, eBay is running banner ads across Hearst’s magazine sites.
“30 Days of Green” is the first time a Hearst ad program of this scale was driven by unique, title-by-title editorial content, as opposed to advertorials. The green-themed content of each Hearst title effectively and creatively reflects the editorial tone of that magazine brand. For example, Esquire’s package features the tongue-in-cheek timeline “Great Moments in Green,” which includes factoids such as “65 million years ago: Ireland is formed” and “1940: First green cards issued following the Alien Registration Act.” Cosmo’s content includes “Fab Tips For Dressing Eco-Chic” and the very in-character “Hottest ideas for getting it on—for the good of the planet.” One tip: “Showering with a buddy.”
“30 Days of Green” was the brainchild of Hearst Magazines executive vice president, chief marketing officer and publishing director Michael Clinton, who says the initiative took roughly nine months of planning.
During the strategy meeting in which the project was born, Clinton recalls thinking, “What if we did something across the whole portfolio? Something made me think of Earth Day and how we could do something [eco-themed] that had relevance across all our titles—everybody has an environmental message, whether it’s Popular Mechanics or Veranda or Redbook. It’s something the whole culture is engaged in.”
Hearst editors took to the idea immediately. “First, getting two extra pages of edit is something everybody loves,” Clinton points out. “And it was spot-on in terms of something they’d been writing about anyway, which is the environment.”
Ann Shoket, editor of Hearst’s Seventeen, notes that the eBay-sponsored edit was just one element in a range of pro-environment content in the magazine’s April issue, which carried eco-friendly tips on every front-of-book edit page as well as features on green beauty products and fashion. This is the second straight year Seventeen has done an eco-themed issue. “The environment is crucially, crucially, crucially important to my readers,” the editor says.
Lately, concerns have been raised about business pressures leading magazine publishers to edge up to the ethical line between edit and advertising. But for Shoket, the eBay-sponsored content made perfect sense from an editorial as well as a business perspective. “The content was ‘organic,’ if you will, to Seventeen…and it’s encouraging when our partners get behind something that’s so important to us,” she says, adding, “Everybody is looking for new ideas—we are having interesting times in our business, to the say the least. It is important for us to continue to innovate and continue to grow and continue to look for ways our business can do new business.” Clinton points out that eBay did not sign off on the content. Hearst editors, he adds, were not even told which advertiser was sponsoring the project until well into the process.
After deciding to make the initiative part of its “30 Days” franchise (earlier programs were tailored around themes such as home and fashion), Hearst chose to partner with eBay, in the process of positioning itself as a “green marketplace.” A number of sponsors had been considered, including Toyota (whose Prius remains a hot property among the eco-conscious) and Wal-Mart.
Clinton says to expect more initiatives like “30 Days of Green,” at Hearst and elsewhere. “What the magazine industry is being challenged to do is to be more creative, more innovative, and to show how the medium can be used,” he says. “The medium is very powerful. It is, quite honestly, the advertiser that needs to be enlightened about how they can use the medium in an innovative way.”
Clinton says he was preparing, in fact, to “hit the road,” traveling across the country to meet with advertisers with the express purpose of demonstrating how magazines continue to deliver for brands.
