City title plays up promotion: Indianapolis Monthly's co-publishers teamed up to build a city magazine that has defied the recession with some unusual promotions

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1991 by Anne-Marie W. Ninivaggi

"If you can find a parade, get at the head of it," advises Jack N. Marsella, co-publisher/ad director of Indianapolis Monthly. And that's exactly what he and co-publisher/editor Deborah Paul have done to get readers and advertisers to march to their beat. Through innovative promotions, an investment in audience measurement research, and intense concentration on local retailers, the magazine has captured the attention of the 700,000 Hoosiers who live in this heartland city.

"Indianapolis Monthly is very progressive from a promotional point of view," says City and Regional Magazine Association (CRMA) president Alan Leveritt. "They have a knowledge of the local level that they're able to exploit and get strength from. They're doing it as well as any regional magazine in the country."

The two co-publishers have been working as a team since 1988, when Emmis Publishing acquired the magazine from Mayhill Publishing. (Paul was already editor and Marsella was brought on board.) Since then, Indianapolis Monthly has bought out its competition, Indianapolis Magazine, and doubled its gross ad revenues to almost $2 million, says Marsella. He and Paul are minority shareholders of Emmis Publishing, whose 11-year-old parent company, Indianapolis-based Emmis Broadcasting, owns seven radio stations. Indianapolis Monthly has existed under different names since 1977, Marsella says.

The title's total paid circulation for the second half of 1990 was 48,163, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations figures. Marsella reports that although ad pages for the first eight months of '91 vs. '90 dropped 13 percent-from 707 to 610-ad revenue for the same period was almost even-down only 1 percent-as a result of a September 1990 rate increase of 15 percent.

One of the title's strong suits has been organizing event-oriented promotions. Last year, Indianapolis Monthly sponsored "The 1990 Dream Home." A builder/developer proposed the idea and constructed a $1.2 million home on the banks of Geist Lake in a neighborhood he wanted to promote. To persuade suppliers to join the procession,

Jack and I went around with a little road show," says Paul, adding that suppliers could only act as furnishers by advertising in a special 64-page supplement. The supplement was bound into the magazine for subscribers and given out as a stand-alone to everyone who took a tour.

The builder, as owner of the home, paid for installed materials such as carpeting and driveway pavement, but furnishings that were not permanently fixed were returned to the suppliers after the home tours ended. The dream home was totally equipped-from indoor lap pool, locker room, complete home office, dining room china and crystal to clothing in the closets. "It was a total win-win situation because we got tremendous visibility, the builder was in the limelight, and everyone was talking about it," Paul says.

Publicity was vital to the plan's success. Indianapolis Monthly ran four-page color layouts each month from january to September, did trades for radio time, purchased ads in the Sunday newspaper real estate section and asked suppliers to promote the project through their stores. "Everyone got involved in the act and it flat out worked," Paul says. Readers are a little bit like cat burglars-they like to sit and look in the windows of other people's homes."

To kick off the event and get the community even more involved, a $100-a-head preview party was held on the premises, with proceeds donated to the Indiana Regional Cancer Center. Paul is a strong proponent of getting local charities involved. "They're great because they have volunteer auxiliaries who help you," she says.

The dream home drew 15,000 visitors in two weeks. Afterward, it was put on the market, but has not yet been sold. A 1991 dream home, complete with a home theater and golf practice room, is scheduled to open in October. "Builders and developers are lining up to do it for'92 and 93-right in the middle of a recession," notes Paul. Everyone's in the act Instead of employing a promotions department, Indianapolis Monthly relies on the hustling" of the staff, Paul says. "We all just sit around and brainstorm." One idea hatched in a meeting led to sponsorship of The Taste of Indianapolis last April. In conjunction with the magazine's People's Choice Restaurant Awards that appeared in the May issue, the 45 restaurants that advertised in the magazine's special restaurant section were invited to set up booths in a mall's vacant department store and offer food samples to the 500 people who paid $12.50 in advance or $15 at the door to attend. Proceeds went to the American Diabetes Association's Indiana affiliate. Like the dream home, this event is slated to become an annual occasion.

While larger city and regional magazines have been hurt by the loss of national ads, Indianapolis-Monthly is gliding through the recession relatively unscathed. "The growth of our company sales volume can be attributed to local retail merchants," Marsella says. To attract these advertisers, including remodeling companies, resorts and restaurants, the magazine produces special ad sections on topics such as real estate and travel. Simmons research has proved "terrific" as well, Marsella says.