Five years ago today, I was attending the Hearst Unbound All Access event on the 44th floor of Hearst Tower, rubbing elbows with the top brass at Hearst’s magazine and publishing division. I was working for the largest global furniture manufacturer and retailer, Ashley HomeStores. My team handled the $200,000,000 media budget and we were partnering with Hearst on creative approaches to advertising our products through digital, print, online and influencer campaigns.
Taking a que from the television networks “upfronts”, Hearst created an invitation only magazine upfront called Hearst Upfronts-Unbound All Access. I was excited and felt lucky enough to be on the invitation list.
The television upfronts were typically a week of meetings between the television sales teams and media buyers from agencies and advertisers. These meetings were a big deal to the networks since a majority of the media buys for the year are purchased between May and July. But these weren’t your ordinary run of the mill meetings. The TV upfronts were over-the-top presentations, with every year becoming bigger than the last. They included exotic foods, celebrity meet-and-greets, lavish gifts, fireworks and more.
It was a rainy fall day and going to Hearst Tower reminded me of my time working in beauty and meeting with Loreal’s professional products division in Manhattan. My Hearst contact escorted my agency partner and I up to the 44th floor where morning cocktails and networking began.
Presentations started with Food Network Magazine introducing Bobby Flay (in the flesh) who made fresh churros for the audience. He was promoting his new cookbook Brunch at Bobby Flay’s and he gifted everyone attending a copy. Another celebrity peddling their new book was Drew Barrymore. She had just published her autobiography titled Wildflower, which I still have yet to read five years later.
Oprah Magazine was on the agenda I was really hoping that meant Oprah would be there to host, but no…. she sent her bestie Gayle King instead. And no, there weren’t any ‘favorite things’ hidden under our chairs. Speaking of Oprah….Made famous by regular appearances on The Oprah Winfrey show, Dr. Oz also joined the celebrity lineup among others.
But the real highlight for me in terms of both fun factor and business, was receiving the Joy Mangano My Little Steamer. If only I could have 1/10th of Joy’s storytelling, enthusiasm and ability to persuade people who can’t touch or try a product to purchase it. And they did. Millions. She is a great example of how storytelling is so important to selling. I’ve always wanted a steamer and was excited to receive this one from a woman who worked hard to create it and sell it. I shoved that sucker in my suitcase – I was not leaving it behind!
The day continued with Scott Foley on stage at which time it became apparent that their presentation strategy was to trot out celebrities that most represented each magazine’s content. I was more excited about the churros and the My Little Steamer. And, five years later the steamer has gotten a lot of use. The books still sits on my shelf unread.
