The past year and a half has brought some major structural changes to Condé Nast, where several brands' business operations have merged to create large-scale sales offerings. First, there was the creation of the Food Innovation Group (a combination of Bon Appétit, Epicurious and The Shopper's Network), followed by Teen Vogue's sales team being folded into big sister Vogue, and finally Glamour took over the business operations of Self (which led to Self publisher Mary Murcko leaving the company).
Now, under the leadership of Glamour publisher and CRO Connie Anne Phillips, the combined Glamour/Self sales network is getting its own name—Condé Nast Aurora—and a new tagline, "The power of possible."
So, first of all, why Aurora? "Glamour and Self have a shared mindset of optimism, of confidence and of endless possibility," explained Phillips. "'Aurora' is the Latin name for the goddess of dawn, and it reinforces our emphasis on mindset and the possibility of each new day."
Those buzzwords, rather than a specific target audience, form the basis of what Aurora is offering to both advertisers and consumers. "Our competition of existing media options are organizing themselves around a demographic segment or a topic, and what we've found the white space to be is a mindset, so we're taking a very different approach," said Phillips. That mindset of the "power of possible" is "something that marketers recognize as one of the most effective ways to connect with women ... especially millennial women," added Phillips.
The new Aurora network reaches approximately 14 million women across print and digital channels, according to Condé Nast, and will seek to further expand its reach through affiliations with "like-minded content creators" such as independent lifestyle websites. (Both the Glamour and Self editorial teams will continue to function independently, however.)
Media buyer Jane Deery, president of PGR Media, was supportive of the network's messaging. "I think it's really smart of them," she said. "A lot of advertisers are looking for scale, but they also want a positive environment." With an audience of 14 million, she added, Aurora will be able compete with large digital media brands like Popsugar and Refinery29.