• by Kristin Sidorak , December 8, 2005

The magazine industry's three-year, $40 million advertising and marketing campaign wrapped up its first year with a new wave of futuristic faux magazine covers designed to illustrate to advertisers that regardless of how virtual the media landscape may become in the future, printed magazines are here to stay.

"Year One's goal [was] about shifting perceptions" about how magazines and magazine brands engage readers, says Nicole Kaplan, vice president-marketing and promotions for the Magazine Publishers of America, which is coordinating the so-called Magazine Marketing Coalition.

As proof, Kaplan cites results of a tracking study conducted via media researcher Affinity Inc., targeting approximately 3,000 media buyers, planners, and advertisers. The study showed a 7 percent increase within the first six months of the campaign, for those who felt the magazine medium's share of ad spending will increase over the next two years, and a 5 percent increase for those who felt "audience" engagement is an attribute that best describes magazines. But Kaplan admits, "one thing we have learned over the course of year one is to connect engagement to ROI," which she expects will hallmark the campaign's evolution--perhaps spawning even greater interest among media decision makers.

"It's an entire industry effort," says Kaplan, noting that MPA member sales forces are also now armed with a tool kit dubbed "Magazine Speak: Language That Sells," a program ensuring that the entire industry reinforces a consistent message to Madison Avenue.

"Having been on both sides, as a buyer and seller--it provides a smart way to draw attention to the durability and relevance that the medium has today and will have in the future," says Steve Greenberger, senior vice president-strategic marketing officer at DJG Marketing, and until recently the top print buyer at Zenith Media. Greenberger, however, has one suggestion to offer the magazine marketing committee: utilize "reinforcing messages along the way" and titillating discourse about the potential technological advancements in its physical design, and not just in its content.

The latest magazines to take part in the new creative--in a list that is now forty strong--are Automobile, The Economist, Elle, Elle Décor, Premiere, Popular Mechanics, and Woman's Day. The covers intend to depict life, as we will know it--about a hundred years from now.

Automobile's cover boasts a monstrous, space-age vehicle and the caption reads: "Luna Rover LR23...Drives, Swims, Flies, and Turns Invisible!" Elle magazine's mock cover reveals "How He Feels About Your Face Transplant," and has a glam-shot of Claudia Schiffer, who is "Still Sexy at 135!" The Economist's futuristic cover highlights "What the worlds are reading."

Ad agency Fallon NY, which folded shortly after the launch of the campaign, offered a surprise glitch to the effort, but the MPA has since taken control of media buying responsibilities and trafficking of ads. The association hopes to name a new agency on the account before the end of the year.

"Due to the large number of titles that want to participate, our member magazines developed their own covers--our members have taken the lead," says Kaplan. MPA's membership committee represents publishers, printers and paper companies--all of whom are involved in selecting a new agency.

MPA's Web site devoted to the "Read On" campaign, www.magazine.org/readon, hosts the expanding gallery of ad images and mock covers, and also serves as a portal for advertisers "to access information that demonstrates magazines' ability to deliver both engagement and accountability."