Each year the IMAG conference brings together independent and enthusiast magazine media executives to discuss the challenges and successes of their industry and brands. Unlike other events, we always appreciate the transparency of this group. In the same way as last year’s event in San Francisco, the 2017 IMAG conference was an honest, high-quality, and well put-together affair. Speakers and discussions were engaging and authentic, and people were given ample opportunities to network and digest all of the valuable insights between speakers.

This year’s program confirmed that custom content continues to be a game changer for publishers. At MediaRadar we saw native advertising is up 74% YOY with over 5,000 advertisers placing paid content ads in Q1. Indy media is no exception, it was great to hear that John Boland and his team at Fine Cooking are leveraging branded content. Native ads continue to increase in popularity in the food market. Afar Media and Forbes were also recognized with Imagination Awards for their successes in the native advertising space. It is great to see paid content continuing to impact the bottom line.

We look forward to seeing how Independent Magazine Media Groups will implement this year’s IMAG learnings. No matter how you are looking to grow and evolve your business, the IMAG conference provides a chance to see how many others have done it.

We were enjoying our coffees, while Mike Martinelli, Group Digital Publisher of Today Media, came into the room with a gong in his hand. Yes, you read that right – a gong. He sat it on the table, and after I introduced him and the rest of the panel, he told everyone to strap in and get ready. The title of this breakout session was “Digital Sales 101”, however, Mike and his crew called it “60 Sales Ideas in 60 minutes.” Each of the panelists had prepared a number of slides with quick and easy digital sales ideas that we could go home with and put into action. Each one had 2 ideas every 2 minutes, and Mike rang the gong to make sure no one went over the time limit. It was fast, fun, and informative.

Irene Peterson of Mpls. St. Paul Magazine, Frank Tarascio of Westchester Magazine, and Susan Farkas of Washingtonian were among the Sales Ideas crew. They took simple ideas and made them BIG, like using your small audience to your advantage, how being a regional publication can be advantageous to your business, and how having a niche audience allows you to charge more for prime reader engagement.

The audience at the Digital Track was furiously jotting down notes. I myself couldn’t take enough notes, as the panel kept zipping through ideas and even stopped a few times to ask questions. The gong was ringing every minute, and I kept thinking of great ideas to bring to my regional clients. The icing on the cake – the slides are all available online! Check out the slides here.

The conference also included some exceptional keynote speakers, including Larry Burstein, former Publisher at New York Media. He spoke about New York Magazine’s strategic shift to digital—which now makes up 60% of New York Media’s total ad revenue—and advertisers’ willingness to experiment with native advertising, despite its time-consuming nature. “The internet is a different way to tell a story.”                                                               

MediaRadar would also like to congratulate all of the 2017 CRMA Award winners and recipients. See the complete list of CRMA winners here.

I could go on forever about more of my favorite takeaways from the rest of the conference sessions, but for now, I’ll leave you with some fun photos using MediaRadar’s custom Snapchat event filter.

Go forth and make those digital ideas grow! Until next year!

-Howard Schecter, Director of Sales

 MediaRadar

Need a stronger pitch to overcome objections? Let us help.

MediaRadar is excited to announce a new partnership with comScore. This unique integration enables MediaRadar to leverage comScore’s Media Metrix to create totally new advertising analysis from its audience and demographic data. This collaboration provides ad sales teams with new insights about brands, audiences, and consumer behavior.

Customers of comScore and MediaRadar have a lot to gain from this exciting partnership. It provides a more unified and granular approach to ad sales intelligence.

Key benefits of this integration include:

• Access to new data: comScore audience demographic and behavior data – across mobile web and online display– will be available within MediaRadar.
• New and Unique Recommendations: MediaRadar’s advanced artificial intelligence technology will analyze comScore data, making recommendations to ad sales personnel to help them enhance their pitch.
• Enhanced User Experience: “Single sign-on” functionality will make using the two systems – comScore and MediaRadar – seamless, easily going from one platform to the other

This amazing new resource is available to MediaRadar subscribers who are also comScore subscribers in Q2 2017. For clients of both services, this new analysis is included at no additional cost.

“This partnership gives our consumers an even more in-depth experience within MediaRadar and we are excited to see our tools come together to maximize your selling experience.” says MediaRadar CEO, Todd Krizelman.