Slick Parties

Time’s $3-million anniversary bash last week, attended by movie stars, sports heroes, CEOs and President Clinton, has sent ripples through the magazine industry.

Although few publications could afford such a lavish event, the Time fete has raised the standard of what a magazine event could amount to and achieve.

“On a consumer level, it established Time’s dominance by bringing together some of the world’s most important people,” said Steve Burzon, who recently organized an event marketing conference for the magazine industry. “On the business side, Time’s sales people are probably running around to [current] and future advertisers with video clips of the event to show the importance of the magazine.”

Magazines have long planned splashy events to build brand equity, court advertisers and generate revenue through sponsorship dollars. But increasingly, magazines are upping the ante, organizing bigger, more expensive and more elaborate events to achieve the same goals.

Advertisers are driving the trend, insisting on larger and more innovative venues to showcase their products to a targeted audience. For instance, car companies want events where potential buyers can test drive the latest models.

High-profile events also lure advertisers and sponsors because they tend to draw positive media attention. But more than ever, advertisers are pushing publishers to host events that correlate to editorial coverage, so the sponsor can reach the magazine’s readers through other means besides ad pages.

“Increasingly, magazines will find it hard to generate revenue if they don’t offer events that provide an added value to advertisers,” said Scott Doniger, consumer events marketing manager of BMW of North America Inc. “I believe there’s going to be a shakeout of magazines, and the only ones that will survive will be those that meet all the needs of advertisers.”

Time is in the midst of another elaborate event. Starting next month, the magazine will publish the first of six issues on “People of the Century,” while CBS will air coordinated specials on the same topic. In an attempt to select the 100 most influential people of the century and ultimately, the “Person of the Century,” Time will hold symposiums in several cities to discuss the matter with leaders in various fields.

Time insists the extended event is not a marketing push, but it has already drawn big-name corporate advertisers, including Chrysler, Lucent Technologies, Dean Witter/Discover Card and State Farm Insurance.

A sampling of recent and upcoming corporate-sponsored magazine events:

* Last month, Hot Rod magazine held its annual Power Festival in West Palm Beach, sponsored by BF Goodrich Tires and Chevrolet. The event included hundreds of modified street cars in a drag-racing competition.

* George this year plans to hold its first-ever Newman’s Own/George Award. Next month’s award ceremony in New York, sponsored by Sony, will honor the 10 most philanthropic companies and feature prominent members of the political and business communities.

* Started as a simple workout event at Central Park in 1994, Self’s “Workout in the Park” this year will take place in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, culminating in a huge workout involving all participants. Last year’s event drew 22 sponsors, including Nike, Reebok, Avia, Diet Dr Pepper and Target.

* This year, Vibe will expand its annual music seminar, which has been held for the last three years in New York City, to include Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The urban music and culture magazine will also hold fashion shows for the first time in Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Los Angeles and New York.

And it will continue to host its Jamizon festival, which celebrates urban music, fashion, sports and the arts, in numerous cities across the country.

By drawing top entertainers and large crowds, Vibe has attracted many blue-chip sponsors to its events, including BMG Entertainment, Miller Beer, Ray-Ban, Reebok, Nissan, Sprite and Dean Witter/Discover Card. “We’re trying to build Vibe’s brand name and come up with ideas that are great for clients and for consumers,” said Leonard Burnett Jr., Vibe’s advertising director. “More and more of our clients are looking for this.” Burnett attributes much of Vibe’s rapid growth to its aggressive marketing. Earlier this month, Adweek named Vibe the “sixth-hottest” magazine, with ad pages up 15% and revenues up 35%.

* Even niche publications, such as Country Home, are doing event marketing. For the last three holiday seasons, the magazine has built a country cabin at Minneapolis’ Mall of America, offering shoppers a place to rest between purchases.

This year, the magazine is attempting something bolder, building a two-bedroom country house on Wall Street. It has already lined up numerous sponsors for the event.

“We wanted to make a statement in the heart of the most frenzied, stressed market you could find and bring a little bit of casual comfort,” said Frank Vitale, marketing director of Country Home, which will feature the suite in next February’s issue. “This is a statement of authority for the magazine, and certainly, it’s a way to build advertising.”

Increasingly, Vitale said magazines feel pressure to bring their pages to life to attract advertisers. “Magazines are a brand, just like Coca-Cola,” he said.

* Sports Illustrated continues to court advertisers by sponsoring trips to major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl or Olympics. It also drew hundreds of advertisers to last month’s swimsuit edition party in New York.

But some advertisers are becoming jaded to the glut of party invitations that come their way. They want more than to just rub shoulders with celebrities at lavish celebrations.

“Sometimes, parties give me an opportunity to meet editors and publishers at the magazine, but [do the parties] influence my media decisions? Absolutely not,” said Andy Picone, associate media director at Warwick, Baker and O’Neill, a New York ad agency. “I could go to a party a week if I wanted to, but I don’t go to half of them.”

What advertisers want, Picone said, are fresh ideas that give them opportunities to showcase their products to the right audience and provide media coverage. Corporations also want the events to cater specifically to their marketing needs.

“A lot of magazines regurgitate ideas and try to pigeonhole my clients to use old ideas. That doesn’t work anymore,” Picone said. “If the magazine industry takes cues from people on my side, they’ll see advertisers want bigger, more grandiose events.”

* One of the most coveted events a magazine can stage is one that has ties to its editorial coverage, such as GQ’s annual “Men of the Year” issue, which coincides with its lavish awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

But magazine publishers and editors are wary of staging too many events that correlate with special issues because readers might suspect that editorial coverage is being fabricated to appease advertisers. Any suspicions about a lack of editorial integrity would quickly lead to their magazine’s demise, they said.

“The events have to make sense and tie in with the editorial message of the magazine,” said David Pecker, chief executive of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. “Among magazines, there’s competition to try to make events bigger than someone else’s event. But just to go out and spend a lot of money on an event doesn’t make sense to me. You need to have a strategy.”