Commentary

This Woman's Work

A woman's work is never done. Couple that with the start of the holiday season and you're left with droves of women planning, preparing and doing the work of a small army.

To combat this predicament, Woman's Day magazine teamed up with Unilever to launch the Unilever/Woman's Day "3-2-1 Countdown to the Holidays" promotion in the magazine's Nov. 14 issue.

The two-page ad coincides with an in-house banner campaign on WomansDay.com and in the Woman's Day opt-in newsletter that launched Nov. 2.

"This 360-degree marketing program provides busy moms with inspiration for memorable holiday entertaining, incorporating the best of digital technology," said Laura Klein, vice president/publisher of Woman's Day.

"Woman's Day's ability to translate its content into digital platforms and Unilever's forward thinking and product line for American families has made this program possible," she said.

Participating brands run the gamut from Bertolli, Country Crock Side Dishes, Hellmann's/Best Foods, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to Knorr-Lipton Sides, Promise, Ragu and Wish-Bone.

The promotion is running through December 20 and revolves around a microsite where busy readers can sign up to receive timesaving tips and recipes on their cell phones; download a digital magazine featuring recipes for a full holiday dinner--embedded with sponsor products, of course--delivered using Zinio technology; and watch streaming video of cooking demos straight from the Woman's Day testing kitchen.

My favorite part of the campaign, organized bee that I am, is the printable lists and checklist items. One page is a checklist of everything needed to prepare a holiday dinner, again using Unilever products as brand choices, and the other is a week-by-week checklist of things that can be prepared in advance. Three weeks ahead: make guest list. Two weeks ahead: order the right size turkey. Monday before Thanksgiving: shop for perishable food.

The concept is well implemented and will surely organize throngs of women in the midst of a busy holiday season. The creative, however is rather simplistic. If you've seen the print ad, then you've seen what the Web site looks like. Banner ads also resemble pages from the microsite. Also, all of the advertising is done in-house. Imagine the increase in downloads if the promotion were advertised on the Food Network or a handful of women's and food sites.

Woman's Day produced the creative in-house, with help from Unilever and its agency MindShare.

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