Magazine giant Meredith buys Hyperfactory stake for mobile presence

By Mickey Alam Khan

July 22, 2009

At home with mobile

Meredith Corp., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens and More magazines, has taken its first major step in mobile marketing with an investment in The Hyperfactory, a leading independent mobile specialist.

The stake in The Hyperfactory will strengthen Meredith Integrated Marketing, the business-to-business arm that offers custom print and online services to clients. Meredith or The Hyperfactory would not disclose financial details of the transaction.

"It's our first move into developing our own capability here," said Wendy Riches, executive vice president of the Meredith Publishing Group, New York. "This is a major and exciting move for Meredith, both in the B2B and B2C space."

The relationship with The Hyperfactory will give Meredith access to clients such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, Nordstrom, Heineken, Disney, USA Network, L'Oreal, Qualcomm, Vodafone and Food Network.

Founded in 2001, The Hyperfactory creates mobile marketing campaigns, programs and sites for clients through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Overseas, the firm has offices in Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Hyderabad, India; and Hong Kong, China.

Hide and chic

Meredith's previous association with mobile was on the tactical level.

A recent promotion with ShopText for More magazine raised more than $10,000 for CARE, a charity that fights global poverty.

Another mobile effort involved creating a recipe-saver online and mobile widget for Better Homes and Gardens to help readers plan meals. The widget is called BHG Recipe Saver.

Kraft's iFood Assistant app

But Meredith is better known for creating the iFood Assistant mobile application for advertiser Kraft Foods.

Developed by Meredith interactive marketing shop Genex and available in the Apple App Store, the recipe-focused iFood Assistant for Kraft is often held up as an example of how content can be leverage across mobile (see story).

"Our advertisers need to be able to reach consumers through mobile as well, and we need to be able to offer that service as well," Ms. Riches said.

"We don't have a single client today who isn't talking to us about mobile every day," she said.

Hypersatisfactory
Derek Handley, The Hyperfactory CEO and cofounder with his brother Geoffrey, said the deal with Meredith did not pose any conflicts since the firm is more focused on large consumer brands than publishers.

However, the appeal of aligning with a major publisher was strong.

"We see a lot of synergies to grow our business," Mr. Handley said. "The business development opportunities are huge.

"We think the combination of media, marketing and technology is where the future is," he said. "Integration of ideas is what people have been talking about for a long time."

The Hyperfactory will keep its name and makeup of executive lineup. In that sense, this deal resembles several others that Meredith has struck over the last few years.

Reading market trends, Meredith in 2006 began strengthening its integrated marketing services offerings with the acquisition of agencies such as O'Grady Meyers and Genex and viral marketing firm New Media Strategies.

Along the way, Meredith also scooped healthcare marketing communications shop Big Communications and database strategy and analytics specialist Directive.

Based in Des Moines, IA, and New York, the $1.6 billion Meredith produces magazines and books, as well as running Web sites, special-interest publications and broadcast properties.

In addition to Better Homes and Gardens and More, Meredith is known for magazines such as Parents, Ladies' Home Journal, American Baby, Fitness and Family Circle.

Last November Meredith announced a minority investment in Real Girls Media Network, a group of social communities for women that includes the DivineCaroline.com brand. With this deal, traffic to Meredith's network of sites is said to have crossed 16 million unique visitors per month.

Clearly, The Hyperfactory stake is not an aberration as Meredith acts and reacts to evolving consumer behavior over content consumption.

"Essentially, mobile is the third screen," Ms. Riches said. "It's the fastest-growing medium in the U.S. today, although the U.S. was behind Europe, it is very rapidly catching up. It's where our customers are and where increasing numbers of consumers will be.

"It's also important as part of the whole information mix," she said. "Consumers want information and they want it now. What we at Meredith strive to be is where the consumer is. Give access to the brand when, where and how they want it."