• by Karl Greenberg , March 13, 2007

Magazine publisher Rodale has joined forces with Saturn to promote its new Aura sedan and Outlook vehicles to health-conscious consumers, via a cross-promotional relationship.

The new effort--"Detour: New Roads to Fitness"--gives Saturn and GM sponsorship of an online health and fitness campaign at www.FindYourDetour.com, print inserts in a number of Rodale books, and direct-marketing efforts.

Rodale will run a print-insert campaign in April issues of several of its pubs, including Men's Health, Women's Health, Best Life, Backpacker, Prevention, Bicycling and Runner's World. More print efforts and direct marketing will continue throughout the year. Rodale also inked a deal with AOL, which will support the program with promotional elements within its health and fitness channels.

The Web site promotes activities like snowboarding, kickboxing and skiing, and features Saturn ad banners for Aura and Outlook, plus links to GM. The site also serves as a consumer kiosk with user chats, blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts on health and fitness issues.

Although Saturn changed agencies in January from Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, San Francisco, to Deutsch, Marina Del Rey, Calif., the program--at least in its initial phases--involved Goodby as well as GM Planworks, the automaker's media buyer.

MaryAnn Bekkedahl, executive vice president/group publisher at Rodale, says the company handled creative duties for the Web and print inserts, in consultation with Saturn's agency. She adds that the media buy reflects an ecumenical approach.

"GM did not want to dive too deeply into any one sport," she says. "They weren't interested in sponsoring a cycling team. Secondarily, they wanted Saturn to continue to be recognized and be carved as the "digital" division of GM."

Bekkedahl says that new elements of the year-long campaign will be developed with Deutsch. Experiential recreational and fitness events at Saturn retailers are also in the works.