In a first for Condé Nast, Details magazine is launching its own male-targeted digital display ad network. The Details Ad Collection, currently in beta mode with more than 20 members, offers men’s fashion and lifestyle bloggers the opportunity to run ads from tony Details advertisers like Kiehl’s and Jaguar. When the ad network officially launches on Sept. 1, it will also include brands like Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Tudor as clients.
To run the display network, Details tapped Style Coalition, a blogger and influencer platform that, until recently, had been mostly female-focused but is now looking to grow its men’s business.
According to Doak Sergent, Details associate publisher of marketing and head of brand development, the Ad Collection fills a void in male-targeted advertising space, much like the creation of Details Style Network—the magazine’s blogger network, which launched last year—did for the men’s blogosphere. (Sergent had previously helped fellow Condé Nast title Lucky launch its own women’s blog collective and ad network.) “This allows us to evolve a platform that readers and advertisers have really responded to, plus it gives us a stronger relationship with our bloggers because we’re putting money in their pockets with every impression they get.”
Although Details has been successful in striking up native ad partnerships between its Style Network blogger members and various men’s brands, Sergent believed it was important to add display advertising to the equation. “As much as native is sexier and certainly what we spend a whole heck of a lot of our time working on, the majority of the media buy is still going into display,” he explained. “Also, you have to promote that branded content, and we’re using display to do it.”
Details' digital footprint has experienced major growth the past year, with third quarter ad revenue up 190 percent year over year. Just recently, the brand received its “first substantial digital investment” from Condé Nast corporate to fund a website overhaul and the addition of several full-time Web staffers, said Sergent.
Meanwhile, Details has also been on the hunt for a new publisher to replace Kevin Martinez, who left last month to join Maxim (and reportedly took eight Condé Nast employees with him on his way out, per WWD). Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation have said that Condé Nast has been considering giving GQ publisher Chris Mitchell oversight of Details and making him group publisher of both titles. (Mitchell was previously Details’ publisher from 2004 to 2008.) Chris Cormier, currently the associate publisher at Details, is also said to be in the running for the job.