• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 3, 2007

In an unusual move for a publisher, OceanDrive Media Group--the Miami-based publisher of 11 regional luxury magazines--has created a parallel strategic marketing group to serve advertisers that aren't interested in advertising in luxury magazines. You read right: OceanDrive Media Group executives admit that luxury magazines are not the right environment for many brands. But they still want to put the company's considerable resources in event planning and marketing to work for them.

That was the motivation for creating a new strategic-marketing branch called the Luxury Branding Agency, according to Lana Bernstein, who heads the group.

Among LBA's first clients is the NFL, which has hired the agency to integrate a variety of marketing programs into its season-opening in Miami on Feb 4. It's a huge event--and not one associated with the luxury focus of OceanDrive Media Group publications, such as its Florida magazine Ocean Drive and Vegas. "Miami has really come on the scene as a major target for brand launching and product development, but there was a lack of strategic-marketing agencies that were capable of coming up with really effective plans," Bernstein explains.

To fill this niche, LBA was really built for "non-traditional marketing. We don't want to have to say no to any company that comes to us."

LBA hopes to provide advertisers with access to its planning capabilities, coupled with its extensive Rolodex of key regional players and venues.

Bernstein says the problem with magazines is that a company has to advertise in them to gain access to all the top-line people and events. Some brands' target demo might not be the high-end niche that Ocean Drive serves, but they still crave those connections. That's where LBA comes in.

"We know all the VIPs, the pacemakers" in places like Miami and Atlanta," Bernstein says. "Everyone has an open door for us."