• by Laurie Petersen , October 29, 2007

In a first for Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., a magazine brand is soliciting user-generated video from its members, starting today. What's most surprising is that the brand is Woman's Day, which kicked off a quest for the funniest Halloween home videos at its Web site.

"Who would have thought five years ago that Woman's Day would have been interacting that way with its readers?" says Philippe Guelton, executive vice president and chief operating officer. He will address how Hachette is adapting to the digital age on a panel today during the American Magazine Conference in Boca Raton, FL.

Womansday.com is the fastest-growing site for Hachette in the past six months and represents the brand with the biggest overlap between Web users and print subscribers, he says.

"This is a really engaged audience," says Guelton. "They love to talk. They love to communicate. We'll be targeting mobile Moms next. It will be interesting."

Part of the Hachette strategy is to build out vertical ad networks for all its key enthusiast audiences--shelter, automotive, fashion, male enthusiasts and women's service and health, Guelton says.

Hachette spends more on consumer product testing in areas such as automotive, boating and cameras than any other line item, Guelton notes. The plan is to syndicate this content more broadly in 2008.

Earlier this year, it revved up its reach in the automotive market with the acquisition of the Jumpstart Automotive Media ad network. It has started to syndicate a Car and Driver-branded Virtual Test Drive widget through Jumpstart's network of sites.

Last week, Hachette cut a deal that adds TheFind.com's shopping search to its Point.Click.Home online brand. As part of the arrangement, Hachette will sell ads on TheFind.com as well.

"You can expect to see more of that," says Guelton.

Point.Click.Home was Hachette's first online brand, providing an end-to-end service for the in-market customer. While drawing on the expertise of Hachette's Elle Décor, Metropolitan Home and other shelter brands, it also incorporates an e-commerce capability and Guelton expects to see ad revenues kick in next year.

In conjunction with the launch, Hachette created a group sales director position for the shelter category whose role is to optimize synergies across platforms. That role is being filled by Laurence Oberwager, while each shelter magazine continues to have a vice president/publisher to sell the individual title.

"Whether you sell online or print, you have to come back with an integrated program," Guelton says. "We're building a new compensation plan which will reward [salespeople for] growing clients' investment in the company regardless of the platform."

New so-called "client ambassadors" will be charged with growing the clients' spending across channels. The plan is expected to kick in next year.

Video is also playing a growing role in Hachette's digital strategy. Marilyn Smith, director of production, came from the Wal-Mart in-store network to launch the video production arm of the company. More than 230 videos were produced by ELLE.com during New York City's Fall Fashion Week last month.