It then commissioned pieces using freelancers and some editorial staff members on Hearst’s digital properties. The Hearst approach, as described by Welker, is Hearst’s “connected content” unit worked with Estée Lauder on editorial guidelines. The tricky part is how to create the content without crossing editorial boundaries. The promise of Advanced Nighttime Repair is to improve the skin’s appearance while women are sleeping. The content has a particular focus on night issues, with several pieces relating to sleep and beauty. OMD declined to discuss the campaign and referred questions to the client. Estée Lauder didn’t reply at time of publication. “It’s nice to get outside the RFP process.”

“It wasn’t an RFP-driven conversation,” said Welker, who is in the midst of moving to a new role at Hearst as publisher of Dr. (Hearst declined to reveal the financial terms of the deal.) The advantage for a media company like Hearst, which was approached by OMD for the program, is that it falls in the “premium” realm, where brands are willing to pay well. The deal is Hearst’s most ambitious content-driven ad strategy – one that uses several properties, according to Kristine Welker, chief revenue officer for the digital group at Hearst Magazines.

“A media partner like Hearst can address all these overlapping interests, creating the perfect context for us to then talk about new Advanced Night Repair.” “Consumers today are savvy for new information about all sorts of topics across multiple platforms,” said Gustavo Andriani, vp of North America Marketing Estée Lauder, in response to emailed questions. The Flipboard magazine is a vehicle to promote a revamped Estée Lauder product, Advanced Night Repair, and includes full-page interstitial ads for it throughout the publication, along with links to positive reviews of the product from blogs like and. The rest of the content is links to articles from Hearst properties and also other sites. In all, Hearst supplied about 20 pieces of content, which will be used to fill the digital magazine until October. Hearst’s custom content unit worked with the brand on developing a slate of both original and recycled beauty and lifestyle content from Hearst pubs Elle, Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar in order to create The Estée Lauder Beauty Book.

Flipboard digital