NEWS & UPDATES

February 12, 2008 In By Advent

Experiential Marketing Meets Traditional Media

What do you do if you need new growth in your indus­try and are com­pet­ing against technology? Magazines are turn­ing to expe­ri­en­tial marketing. 

The tra­di­tional mag­a­zine indus­try is flat to down­ward at best. An arti­cle in The New York Times talks about House & Gar­den mag­a­zine (Condé Nast) spend­ing close to $1 mil­lion on event-based mar­ket­ing.  The ini­tia­tive, the arti­cle and the quotes from key exec­u­tives under­score the value of expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/business/media/11adco.html . 

Addi­tion­ally, the 2006 Report on Amer­i­can Jour­nal­ism (http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/narrative_magazines_audience.asp?cat=3&media=8) shows that most cor­ner­stone mag­a­zines are deal­ing with an aging read­er­ship.  Much of this is brought on by the growth and impor­tance of new media routed in technology.

In order to com­pete, tra­di­tional mag­a­zines need to make their brands (titles) relevant. Joseph Lagani, VP and Pub­lisher of House & Gar­den even said that his adver­tis­ers want to do some­thing unusual to con­nect with their audi­ence. The goal of House & Gar­den’s “Design Hap­pen­ing” event and other face-to-face mar­ket­ing strate­gies like this one is the out­come of well-conceived expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing. EM grows more prof­itable rela­tion­ships with cus­tomers and prospects by pre­sent­ing inter­ac­tive, per­sonal oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with the authen­tic nature of the brand.  The arti­cle refers to “new” and “tan­gi­ble” forms.  Mr. Lagani says it best, “It makes our brand come to life.”

In a day and age where media and con­tent is a mouse click away, pow­er­ful brands in tra­di­tional jour­nal­ism real­ize the value of a mar­ket­ing experience.

Authored By Advent

Advent partners with organizations to help them visually express differentiation.