• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, August 5, 2016

Hearst is blowing its own horn when it comes to fashion. (It’s a bespoke silver-and-brass horn studded with Swarovski crystals, if you’re wondering.) The publisher of Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire and Town & Country is touting its fashion coverage ahead of the big September fashion issues in a new marketing campaign boldly proclaiming, “We Are Fashion,” according to WWD, which first reported the news.

The New York City-focused ad campaign targets both consumers and advertisers with the goal of driving awareness, newsstand sales and readership of the September issues, the annual blockbusters of fashion content and advertising across the magazine business.

It also highlights Hearst brands’ digital fashion coverage on a range of platforms and channels, including mobile, social media, and video.

The campaign is set to debut on August 8 and run for six weeks. It includes a variety of outdoor ads, like billboards, bus shelters and bus sides, phone kiosks, taxi tops, airport placements, and retail displays, as well as video and static displays in Hudson News outlets nationwide.

The ads show the covers of the upcoming September issues for Hearst’s four fashion titles — featuring Cara Delevingne, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Sarah Jessica Parker — while the video teases some of their big editorial features with “behind-the-scenes” footage. The video will appear as part of pre-show coming attractions at dozens of Regal Cinemas around New York.

To sweeten the deal, Hearst is also giving away a total of five prizes at random among 100,000 magazines sold at newsstands in the New York metro area, entitling the lucky readers to $1,000 shopping sprees at Lord & Taylor. Finally, Hearst editors will visit Barnes & Noble stores around New York to sign copies of the magazine.

The marketing campaign comes as high-end brick-and-mortar retailers have hit a rough spot, partly due to the rise of luxury e-commerce, as well as reflecting a drop off in retail tourism to the U.S. from abroad, especially Europe and China, resulting from the strong dollar.