• by Fern Siegel , April 24, 2007

CNN Headline News and Travel + Leisure magazine have joined forces for a multimedia partnership to promote the magazine's "America's Favorite Cities Survey." Farmers Insurance Group, the inaugural corporate sponsor, will underwrite an ad package that includes integrated billboards and tagged tune-ins around CNN features, as well as banner ads and messaging on CNN.com and CNN Exchange.

The survey launches with coverage on CNN's "Robin & Company" and voting begins online April 30 at www.TravelandLeisure.com/afc and www.CNN.com/travel. Twenty-five American cities will be rated in a variety of categories. This is the fourth annual survey by T+L.

Campbell-Ewald is the ad agency for Farmers Insurance. No financial terms were disclosed.

As part of the ad package, Farmers Insurance will have ad messaging on-air and online, augmented by broadband video, polls, photo galleries and an online sweepstakes from TravelandLeisure.com, which is offering a grand prize trip to Sydney, Australia.

"This is a great opportunity to offer our advertisers the chance to align themselves with two top brands in the news and travel marketplace," said Greg D'Alba, COO of CNN ad sales and marketing.

The content partnership is also a chance to cross-pollinate media brands. Magazine's editors will appear on "Robin & Company," profiling the cities on the survey and providing information on survey findings. Results will be revealed October 10 on "Robin & Company" and on both media organizations' Web sites. They will also run in Travel + Leisure's November 2007 issue.

Viewers will be encouraged to post their own experiences and vacation stories for possible use on air, via CNN Exchange I-Reports.