• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 7, 2006

At a time when demand for business-to-business media appears to be inching up, the business media industry is kicking off a big advertising push designed to raise its awareness on Madison Avenue. The effort being announced today by trade organization American Business Media, features a new ad campaign created by New York-based DiMassimo Inc., and focuses on the influential nature of B-to-B media outlets. Not surprisingly, the campaign is being placed in some B-to-B media outlets known to be influential on Madison Avenue, namely, the print editions of the advertising trade press, Chief Executive magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.

The campaign, themed "Business Media. Devoured by the Influential," will also be featured on the websites of influential business publications such as Forbes.com and CFO.com.

Mark DiMassimo, CEO & creative director of DiMassimo, Inc., acknowledged that the strategy plays to theme du jour on Madison Avenue: the concept of audience engagement. "Business media takes that to the limit. It's not read, it's devoured! This campaign dramatizes that fact," he said. And he meant that literally. The campaign features artwork illustrating a human digestive system with the digestive tract leading to the brain instead of the stomach.

Apparently, the ABM thinks business media outlets go only so far in reaching influential business decision-makers - in this case, advertisers and media buyers. One of the key components of the campaign will be "face-to-face" presentations, proving that direct sales calls are still a big factor in the B-to-B marketplace.

The ABM did not disclose the size of the budget, how much of the media was being donated, or what the length of the schedule is, but the effort appears to be well-timed, coming as most of the print media trade associations - including the Magazine Publishers of America and the Newspaper Association of America - are blitzing Madison Avenue with their own advertising efforts.

It also comes as the B-to-B ad marketplace appears to be experiencing a turnaround. Demand for business-to-business media inched up in March, after a rough start during the first two months of 2006. Ad pages in the U.S. business press rose 0.7 percent to 82,476 in March, marking the first expansion of page sales reported so far this year by the Business Information Network, a service of American Business Media. The growth follows declines in January and March, and the year-to-date total is now down only 0.1 percent.