Multimedia Motion

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August 1, 2003

Byline: COMMENTARY BY JOSH GORDON

As media buying gets more sophisticated, buyers look for more comprehensive solutions. And with Web sites, trade shows, special events, and TV programming, publishers are able to sell a wider variety of media options. So why, with both media buyers and sellers groping for integrated packages, has there been more failure than success in this area?

Creating integrated packages that have meaning for media buyers is harder than it looks. At many publishing companies, selling an integrated package is viewed the same as selling an ad contract, only bigger. When the sales don't show up, many are surprised and frustrated. But selling integrated packages requires a different mind-set. Here are four questions to ask your staff to improve the "integration IQ" of your sales organization.

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Are your integrated proposals inventory-driven or idea-driven? It's logical for a publishing/media company to start building an integrated proposal by taking inventory of the magazines, Web sites, trade shows, etc. that it owns and bundle them in a sale. Typically, clients who are principally interested in media are offered packages that include some well-priced products they are less interested in. These "inventory-driven" proposals often fail.

The idea you develop will have a better shot at acceptance if it is aligned with defined client goals. If your client wants to reach chief engineers at TV stations or female homemakers ages 18 to 45, ask what trends are affecting that group and spin your proposal around it. Is there a new technology these engineers need to understand? Is there a new development in food preparation these homemakers are embracing?

The challenge to media sales organizations is to come up with ideas whose implementation would use their available media. If you can become involved with helping to develop or propose an idea, then you will have some control over which media will inevitably be bought.

At their heart, the best-integrated proposals have an idea that benefits the client and also leverages the assets of the media company. The buy is driven by the idea, not the coincidence of available inventory.

Magazine publishers who involve idea people in the process of integrated package development will have the advantage.

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Is content part of your package? Your team assembles an attractive media package and presents it to an advertiser. If your client has enough buying clout, she could lean on a few of your competitors and duplicate the proposed media transaction. But if content development is part of your proposal, it will be much more difficult to duplicate.

A business magazine can, for example, create an advertorial that runs in the publication, is repurposed as a special report on the magazine's Web site, and is overprinted for the client to use as a trade show handout. The cornerstone of the package is the content.

In one mega-package reported by Ad Age, The Home Depot signed a $100 million deal with Disney/ABC to buy advertising across several Disney properties. In addition, Disney agreed to develop a home decorating program for The Home Depot to advertise on, "The Disney Paint Program."

Big package or small, when selling integrated media, often the unique element you can package is content, not CPM.

Publishers who find ways for their content (editorial) people and salespeople to work together without compromising editorial integrity will have the advantage.

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Do your media packages make commodities of their components? Great news, your magazine has just been sold as part of a large ad package deal. With shared sales effort, your staff may have exerted less effort. And the sheer momentum of the buy moves the media into your publication and keeps it stable.

The bad news is that your magazine's brand identity could be at risk. Usually, the comparative value of your magazine gets explained in the selling process, but if it's just part of your integrated sell, that reinforcement may not occur. Your client could lose the sense of the comparative value your publication offers. It's important to find ways to reinforce the comparative value that each component of an integrated buy brings to the table. If the value of each media product is not reinforced, the value of the overall package diminishes.

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"Would you like fries with that?" At one New York Folio: Show, I gave a presentation called "Sell More Print Advertising Space by Selling the Web." Afterward, Harry Carter, from Jane's Information Group, suggested that I reverse the title of my talk. He was having great success selling his magazines' Web products, not as a separate entity but as an add-on sale that rode along with his magazine space contract.

While blockbuster media packages from AOL Time Warner grab the headlines, I hear of far more success stories that come from simply riding related media elements along with the print buy at contract time. The "Would you like fries with that?" approach works because your customers are already sold on your core audience, editorial approach, and sense of values existing with your print property. Instead of trying to sell a new component from scratch, you are asking clients to "extend their buy" on a product they already believe in on the Web, in a trade show, or from an event.