News Releases
NEW YORK, Sept. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) (www.meredith.com), the nation's leading media and marketing company with national brands that service 110 million American women every month and local television brands in large, fast-growing markets, today hosted its second annual BrandFront presentation. The company unveiled its 2018 slate of original cross-platform programming and video content to more than 250 key advertisers and marketers at Cedar Lake in New York City. This year's theme focused on "The Year of Doing," with three strategic content pillars – Form Good Habits, Start Something New and Fuel Your Passion – inspiring new programming across the company's iconic brands in the food, parenting, beauty, home and wellness spaces.
"Consumers and meaningful results are at the heart of everything we do at Meredith," said Jon Werther, Meredith National Media Group President. "The 'Year of Doing,' and the various cross-platform initiatives that comprise it, speaks to a major evolution in consumer mindset calling for a return to the fundamentals of happiness, a wish to regain control, and a desire to make things happen. We are harnessing the power of our brands to reshape the conversation around our audiences' passions, helping them achieve daily and dream big, while tapping into our powerful technology platforms and first-party data and insights to drive meaningful and measurable results for our clients."
Martha Stewart, Hilaria Baldwin, The Biggest Loser's Jen Widerstrom, actress Hilarie Burton and The Real Housewives of New York City's Dorinda Medley helped present the new programming along with brand leaders.
In addition to a real-time celebrity Allrecipes Allstar cook-off featuring Burton and Medley, attendees were also treated to a BrandFront exclusive virtual reality tour of Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas.
During the one-hour event, Meredith announced a new live video series partnership with Rachael Ray that will launch in 2018, showcased a new travel and fitness television show with renowned trainer Rebecca Kennedy, and unveiled results of a new accountability study for the pharmaceutical category under its highly-successful Meredith Sales Guarantee program. In addition, company content leads previewed 12 new cross-platform initiatives:
Form Good Habits
- FitCity – SHAPE's new video series, FitCity, gives viewers an inside look at some of the best under-the-radar fitness, food, and travel locations from across the U.S. In each 30-minute episode, renowned trainer Rebecca Kennedy and her posse of fitness friends explore different cities to discover the country's best gyms, workouts, trainers and healthy food hotspots. FitCity will also appear on SHAPE.com with an expert look at the latest in fitness, athleisure styles, healthy apps and trends.
- IRL (In Real Life) – Parents reflects the demand for authenticity, humor and forgiveness in the community of moms with this new, wholesome editorial franchise for 2018. The program will look at the emotional journey of parenthood with a designated landing page on Parents.com featuring articles, slideshows and videos under the Parents IRL banner. The campaign's social component will include curated videos, articles and slideshows, using the hashtag #ParentsIRL, across social media platforms. To kick things off, Parents Content Chief Liz Vaccariello sat down on-stage with celebrity mom Hilaria Baldwin to discuss some real-life mom moments.
- #SHAPESquad – SHAPE's #SHAPESquad is a new 360° initiative dedicated to "the life, the look, the leaders" of today's active lifestyles, appearing across the brand's print, digital, social, and experiential platforms. The new print section, premiering in SHAPE's October issue, focuses on trending workouts; athleisure; profiles of real, inspiring women and much more. To launch the campaign, SHAPE is hosting its first-annual '#SHAPESquad NYC Takeover,' an event series featuring workshops with top fitness, wellness and beauty influencers at cutting-edge locations throughout New York City. Jen Widerstrom of The Biggest Loser, along with SHAPE Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Goodman Artis revealed plans for this lifestyle-focused initiative.
Start Something New
- #MomBod – Parents, Parents Latina and SHAPE partner on #MomBod, a cross-brand, cross-platform initiative about embracing body confidence and rejecting body shaming. The #MomBod initiative is a content series that lives in-book in both Shape and Parents magazines and online at both Shape.com and Parents.com.
- Plant Your Plate – EatingWell and Better Homes & Gardens join forces on Plant Your Plate, a cross-brand editorial initiative inspiring people to get more involved with their food, learn where their food comes from and get a better understanding of what eating healthy is all about. The new campaign will pair gardening advice along with cooking inspiration in the brands' digital and print platforms. Plant Your Plate will be integrated into every issue as well as have programming on both BHG.com and EatingWell.com.
- Food + Music Revolution – Food and music are Rachael Ray's two favorite things. The June issue of Rachael Ray Every Day will kick off a cross-platform initiative, covering their crossroads – a bullseye for the Rachael Ray brand – not to mention the millennial market. We'll cover the best eats at summer music festivals, how chefs choose what plays at their restaurants, musicians who are foodies, chefs that are in bands and more!
Feed Your Passion
- Celebrity Allstars – In commemoration of its 20th anniversary, Allrecipes is launching Celebrity Allstars, a new editorial platform showcasing delicious dishes served up by celebrities that will cross digital and print with Facebook Lives, celebrity profile pages and a branded TV segment in partnership with Celebrity Page. Real Housewives of New York's Dorinda Medley and actress Hilarie Burton helped promote this cross-platform program in a live breakfast cook-off during the 2018 BrandFront event.
- Change Maker – This new Martha Stewart Living column, appearing in both print and digital, showcases people who are making an impact on their communities or the environment and inspires readers to follow suit. Each column includes an action plan, which gives readers the opportunity to learn and do—and brings the pages of Martha Stewart Living to vibrant life. Founder and Chief Creative Officer Martha Stewart and Editor in Chief Elizabeth Graves presented key highlights of this editorial franchise at the 2018 BrandFront event.
Meredith's powerful slate of premium video represents television, digital series and social innovations. The company's expansive video platform features more than 115 premium series produced across Meredith brands, which have been viewed more than 1.4 billion times with an audience reach of 160 million. The company produces more than 650 Facebook Live broadcasts annually, in addition to 360° Facebook Lives and VR campaigns. New partnerships and programs announced at the 2018 BrandFront event include:
- Kids Explain – A heartwarming, humorous Parents series in which kids explain everything - from love, to friendship, to who Santa is.
- Make Up Master Class - From how to wear red lipstick to how to line your eyes, the team at Martha Stewart Living illustrates how to choose the right products and apply them, using expert advice and fresh-faced, real people doing it themselves.
- Modern Makers – The team at Better Homes & Gardens profiles diverse female entrepreneurs, from ceramic artists to woodworkers.
- Mom on the Street – This Parents series covers humorous topics like #momguilt and asks the serious questions, like "lifestyle blogger or celebrity baby name?"
- The Dirt – Better Homes & Gardens Editor-in-Chief Stephen Orr provides advice for both beginners and experienced gardeners alike.
Alysia Borsa, Meredith's Chief Data and Insights Officer, spoke about the company's proprietary first-party, data and insights, which enable marketers to activate target audiences based on intent and, more importantly, to develop insights to drive client's key strategic business decisions.
"We are also excited to share the results of a new Sales Guarantee for the Pharma Category, where we saw a 22 percent increase in prescription sales" said Borsa.
The event comes on the heels of Meredith celebrating its most profitable year in the company's 116-year history. In Meredith's 2017 fiscal year, the company's National Media Group increased its total digital audience and magazine readership, extended its Millennial reach and engagement, and expanded its advertiser base across its expansive portfolio.
For additional event information, releases, bios and more please visit www.MeredithBrandFront.com.
ABOUT MEREDITH CORPORATION
Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com) has been committed to service journalism for more than 110 years. Today, Meredith uses multiple distribution platforms – including broadcast television, print, digital, mobile and video – to provide consumers with content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners.
Meredith's National Media Group reaches 110 million unduplicated women every month, including nearly 70 percent of U.S. Millennial women. Meredith is the leader in creating and distributing content across platforms in key consumer interest areas such as food, home, parenting and health through well-known brands such as Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, Parents, SHAPE and The Magnolia Journal. Meredith also features robust brand licensing activities, including more than 3,000 SKUs of branded products at 5,000 Walmart stores across the U.S. Meredith Xcelerated Marketing is an award-winning, strategic and creative agency that provides fully integrated marketing solutions for many of the world's top brands, including The Kraft Heinz Co., Benjamin Moore, Allergan, TGIFriday's and WebMD.
Meredith's Local Media Group includes 17 television stations reaching 11 percent of U.S. households. Meredith's portfolio is concentrated in large, fast-growing markets, with seven stations in the nation's Top 25 – including Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis and Portland – and 13 in Top 50 markets. Meredith's stations produce 700 hours of local news and entertainment content each week, and operate leading local digital destinations.
SOURCE Meredith Corporation