PR Interview: How to Reach Canada's Big Brand Advertisers

Mary Maddever, VP & Editorial Director Strategy Suite 500, 366 Adelaide St. W. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 1R9 416-408-2300 http://www.strategymag.com mmaddever@brunico.com

-> Reach

14,130 total qualified circulation

-> Maddever's background

Maddever is currently the editorial director and VP for Brunico Communications. In addition to Strategy, she has also been the editor for RealScreen magazine, KidScreen, Playback, and 'boards -- all magazines published by Brunico.

-> Current editorial coverage

The monthly magazine covers marketing and advertising in Canada. "About two-thirds of our readers are client marketers: brand managers, VPs of marketing of the Nikes and Cokes," Maddever explains. "The other third are ad agencies, media agencies, promotional agencies, things like that."

Strategy covers "the best of the best, in terms of the innovative stuff that's going on, anything from TV to wherever you put your campaign."

She might include stories on a company getting into a different demographic using new kinds of advertising methods like podvertising, or on a company that is simply being really good in the traditional advertising space, "breaking ground by being brilliant," says Maddever.

While the magazine focuses on Canada, it also covers trends and tools that would be of use to Canadians. "So if you have something that's American, like software, that Canadians could use regardless of where it comes from, we're interested."

Strategy also publishes 'Media in Canada,' a newsletter that goes out twice a week by email.

Readers of the newsletter are primarily media buyers, planners, and marketers. "The newsletter goes much deeper into media agencies than the magazine because the magazine is primarily designed for marketers and creative agencies. The newsletter is for the media people."

-> Best way to pitch Maddever

"Email the news, however that might be," she says. "A press release, a sentence, whatever, is probably the best way to reach us."

While Strategy has different editors working different topic areas, sending information directly to them gets confusing. "They usually go 'directly' to the wrong person," she says.

Once she receives your pitch, she'll pass it along to the correct person, who will call for additional information if they're interested.

-> What she looks for in a story pitch

Maddever's take on pitches is different than most of the other monthly magazines we've covered. While we generally hear that monthlies don't want news releases because monthlies don't generally cover news, Maddever does want to hear about news, which she can then fit into a feature or other story as she sees appropriate.

However, she wants to know about the news early, long before you might generally send out a press release.

For example, an upcoming issue will include a special report on next generation marketing, which will cover podvertising, among other things. So if a marketer had a podvertising campaign to talk about, she'd want to know about it.

"We prefer to get the information in terms of a heads-up ahead of time. By the time something comes out in a mass press release, it may already be too late," she says.

Also unlike other monthlies, Maddever does not want story ideas: "We don't tend to write about things in a philosophical way, or just looking at a trend. The actual news-y things of what people are doing in the market is what we're looking for."

Besides, she says, when people pitch ideas for stories, they tend to pitch stories that she ran "last week," she says.

Two other ideas that *don't* work for Maddever:

--Sending information on yourself with the hopes of being contacted as an expert source in a particular field. She may pass your information on to the appropriate editor for their resource file, but she has no confidence that it is actually used.

--Checking out the editorial calendar and pitching an idea that would fit into a future story. "That just probably wouldn't work," she says.

So what does she want?

--"News of what people are doing so I can plug it into the features I have planned."

--Profiles of marketers who are "brave and breakthrough and innovative."

--Anything useful, actionable, timely and inspirational for Canadian marketers to use in the Canadian marketplace (though it may come from somewhere else).

"A lot of the newer ways to reach people, especially youth, tend to not have the same kind of boundaries that traditional advertising did," she explains. "Web sites and viral campaigns don't tend to have borders; they're suddenly able to have an impact on [the Canadian ] market simply because it's a world with no barriers."

For example, she says, the MTV Overdrive site could have an impact on her audience now, "whereas before, MTV couldn't have, unless it was MTV Canada."

To pitch ideas for 'Media in Canada' (the newsletter), send research, new magazine launches, product placement opportunities, etc. "It's more of a niche publication," says Maddever.

-> Pet peeves

"The people who email you and phone you and fax you." Also, follow-up calls.

-> Prewritten contributions

No.

-> Becoming a regular columnist

"We have our own columnists and people clamoring to do columns for us, so no."

-> Deadlines

"It's hard to say. Sometimes, it could be a week before we're going out the door for something that's drop-dead amazing. Don't focus on our deadlines because that never works. Once the mass press release comes out, it's too late. We work anywhere from a month ahead to two weeks."

-> Favorite professional publication

Maddever wouldn't allow herself to be pinned down on any particular pub. "I read a lot of different ones, because we cover a lot of different niches."