MPA to Unveil New Feb. Campaign

-By Stephanie D. Smith

The Magazine Publishers of America, with help from new ad agency Wenham, Mass.-based Mullen, will unveil its latest industry-awareness campaign in mid-February.

The ad is part of a three-year, $40 million campaign launched in 2004 by the MPA’s Magazine Marketing Coalition to promote the value of print. It is expected to target media buyers and advertisers. A year ago, the MPA tapped Fallon N.Y. to be its agency of record, but it shut down last summer.

While the ad has not been finalized, Media- week has learned that it will emphasize ways in which consumers use and take action from print advertisements more than other media. The ad, which will run in consumer and trade magazines (including Mediaweek) sent to buyers, is designed to look like an advertisement that appears to have been ripped out. Next to the jagged edge of the paper, text in the ad will say “Could this ad be at the car dealership?” or “Is this ad at a department store?” The text plays up the concept that magazine readers often take the ads on shopping trips or save them for future reference.

An MPA spokesman declined comment but confirmed the concept. The industry group still has to finalize the verbiage and get permission to alter advertisers’ pages.

MPA members who were shown the ad last week say it is compelling. “In order for advertising to be effective, it has to be somewhat intrusive. If it doesn’t get noticed, it doesn’t work,” said Jim Fishman, group publisher, AARP Publications, who sits on the MPA board. “That point that people use magazine advertising is made very well. You sit in a waiting room somewhere, leaf through magazines and find lots of pages gone. This campaign is a reminder of that.”

Last year, Fallon developed an ad that had publishers create futuristic-looking mock covers that illustrated the longevity of print. About 50 titles participated, including Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Elle and The Economist.