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Hearst’s new ad products enable advertisers to reach interested consumers directly, even when they are away from their digital devices. The publisher recently announced MagMatch, an ad product that uses readers’ online behavior to send them targeted print ads.
Hearst will use first-party data, including the buy buttons on which readers click, to understand what kind of products its readers are interested in. It will then work with the brands of these products to serve subscribers with targeted ads in its print magazines. The ads would, for example, address readers by their names.
The product, MagMatch, has been created by Hearst Data Studio. The initial print ad, created for skincare company StriVectin, will be available with the latest issue of Elle. According to Adweek, the ads could also appear in other Hearst brands, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Food Network Magazine and Car & Driver.
Targeted print ad by Hearst’s MagMatch on Elle
We’re always looking for ways to make 1:1 connections with consumers … Harnessing the power to target and personalize the insert took a great campaign concept to the next level.
Alison Yeh, Chief Marketing Officer at StriVectin
“It’s about mining and creating audience segmentation”
Charles Wolrich, Head of Hearst’s Data Studio, says that even though most subscribers aren’t logged on to Hearst brands’ websites, the publisher matches their behavior anonymously using third parties.
According to Elle publisher Kevin O’Malley, the offering would help Hearst Magazines to further stand out from the crowd. “It’s not just about scale. It’s about mining and creating audience segmentation within that,” O’Malley told Adweek.
Wolrich added that MagMatch would, for example, help a magazine like Car & Driver decide whether a reader should receive a print ad for an SUV or a sedan.
“Getting products into consumers’ hands”
MagMatch follows Sample Ignition 360, Hearst’s social media ad product launched earlier this year. It lets Hearst readers request free samples of a product in exchange for their email address and shipping information. Hearst delivers product samples to customers in partnership with a company called SoPost.
Further, if the advertiser wants, Hearst can follow-up with sample-takers through email, asking for feedback and encouraging them to write reviews for the brand. It can also retarget people who claimed samples across its websites and on social channels.
It (Sample Ignition 360) has a lot of potential, if executed properly. There’s a lot of noise in paid media. The name of the game is getting products into consumers’ hands.
Steve Weiss, CEO of Facebook agency MuteSix
Advertisers can distribute the sample ads as advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, and target a demographic audience designed using Hearst’s data management platform. They can also place ads within Hearst Magazine titles’ Instagram or Facebook Stories to reach the specific audiences of those titles.
From left to right: A screenflow of how Hearst’s ads will work on Instagram.
Although we do not have details about how they are performing, these initiatives are a part of Hearst Magazines’ broader ongoing efforts to prove to advertisers that they can deliver business results.
Sam Gladis, Executive Director of Ad Product Marketing at Hearst Magazines told Digiday, “We know our readers want to try the things we talk about. What we’ve found is that there is a desire within the organization, with our ad partners, to find new and unique ways of engaging with our consumer.
“We map to what the market tells us is important.”
