The highway meets the runway in a new advertising collaboration between fashion title Flare and automaker Kia.
As part of a deal between Rogers Media (which owns Flare) and Kia’s media agency, ZenithOptimedia, the automotive company is featured in a seven-page spread in the magazine’s September issue that showcases some of the leading edge trends driving style in innovation and design.
The multi-platform execution, called “Style Drivers,” extends online to the magazine’s tablet edition and Flare.com, which features behind-the-scenes video footage and photo galleries of the project. Kia models including the Cadenza (the newest entry in the Kia lineup), Sol, Optima (one of Kia’s best-selling models) and the female-skewing Rondo are all woven into the editorial content.
Mike Fielding, vice-president, group account director for ZenithOptimedia in Toronto, said the program is an extension of Kia’s internal “led by design” positioning – which reflects the company’s evolution over the years from a maker of functional-looking cars to one of sleek, well-designed vehicles.
“We were looking to partner with media that could help leverage that message,” said Fielding. “Design and fashion go hand in hand, so we wanted to go to one of the leading fashion books and see what they could do.”
It wasn’t an easy sell, however. Flare originally said no to ZenithOptimedia’s overture, said Fielding, but the program subsequently came together through a series of discussions about how to make it work for both parties.
“We didn’t want this to be a blatant advertising opportunity, so it had to work with their brand,” said Fielding. “The only difficulty was getting the initial idea through so that everybody was comfortable with it.”
The advertising program coincides with the introduction of Flare’s first major redesign since 2007. Traditionally the biggest issue of the year for Flare, the revamped September issue is 238 pages. “This was a great opportunity to be there at the right time with the right execution,” said Brandon Kirk, vice-president of sales for Rogers Media.
“Advertorial can be great and advertising can be executed in a great way, but the challenge was to do something bigger and better on a broader scale,” said Kirk. “It was a complete collaboration from top to bottom.”
Kirk declined to provide a specific cost for the advertising initiative, which doesn’t appear on Flare’s rate card. “You don’t want to do what’s been done before, which is why it’s incumbent on us in the media industry to push the boundaries in terms of what we can do for brands,” he said.
The program represents a rare foray into magazine advertising for Kia, said Fielding, offering a chance for the auto brand to stand out from the main battleground of TV.
“It’s unique – we don’t think it will come along next month, or next year,” he said. “For it to be unique it has to only happen once in a while.”
Disclosure: Rogers Media owns Marketing magazine and MarketingMag.ca
