Master of Style
Building a new kind of brand partnership at Here Media
Style is a value add wherever it travels.
Style is a value add wherever it travels. It’s an advantage, a virtue, and something people and brands can become known for. But it doesn’t look the same in every community. What reads as stylish, distinctive or desirable in one culture can mean something completely different in another.
That’s where we helped Cadillac. Out understood the cultural meaning of style for its audience, and we knew the people whose work and point of view could give that idea credibility. Cadillac already had a strong point of view about design and luxury. What it needed was a way to express that point of view in a culture where style had a particular meaning.
Master of Style gave us a way to do that. We selected cultural figures whose work represented the kind of style we wanted to celebrate, then built a program around them that brought together Out’s editorial platform, Cadillac’s brand and product, and the talent’s own point of view and audience.
Cadillac’s investment gave recognition to Out and to the people we selected. In return, Cadillac earned a place in a cultural conversation that was already filled with the thing it wanted to be known for: style. The partnership allowed Cadillac to participate in that culture rather than simply advertise around it.
Blueprinting the system around the idea.
At Here Media, I was responsible for building partnerships like this. Sometimes the big idea came from me. Sometimes it came from the brand partnerships team I led. My job was to blueprint the system around the idea: how Out’s IP, the partner’s brand and product, talent, content, events, PR, media and social could work together to create something that was valuable to everyone involved.
That’s the work I was doing at Here Media. I wasn’t just selling media. I was building what the partnership could be.
Built to live well beyond the editorial story.
Master of Style was built to live well beyond the editorial story.
Each program brought together a custom event produced by Out and attended by approximately 300 VIP guests, PR around the event and red carpet, custom video distributed across the Here Media network, co-branded digital banners promoting the content, and social posts from Out, Cadillac and the participating talent.
The pieces were designed to support one another. The event created the moment. PR extended it. Video gave the story another life. Digital brought people back to the content. Out, Cadillac and the talent could each put the work in front of their own audiences.
Damon Cardasis
The first Master of Style established the idea.
We built the program around filmmaker Damon Cardasis and created an editorial story that connected his work and style with Cadillac.
This was the first expression of the partnership: an Out cultural property, Cadillac and a cultural figure brought together around an idea that gave each participant something to contribute.
Emil Wilbekin
The second year gave the program another dimension.
We brought Master of Style into the physical world with an event at Cadillac House in TriBeCa, inviting approximately 300 VIP guests.
The event gave us another opportunity to create content, generate PR and bring Cadillac, Out and the talent together in one place.
The program was becoming more than an editorial package.
Charlie Carver × Cadillac XT4
By the third year, we had a platform we could use to tell a much bigger product story.
Cadillac was launching the all-new XT4 luxury crossover.
Charlie Carver became the year’s Master of Style, and we built the creative around his approach to style and the design of the new Cadillac.
I particularly like this year because you can see the partnership working at every level.
The talent. The editorial story. The photography. The product. The video. The event. The media. The social.
And because the pieces were designed together, the XT4 didn’t feel like something we had to find a place to put.
It belonged in the story.
In print in Out Magazine and on Out.com.
Editorial photography from Out Magazine in print and Out.com digitally, shown together so the work can be read in both environments.
Master of Style: 60 Seconds with Charlie Carver
Cadillac House · TriBeCa
The event was produced by Out and brought approximately 300 VIP guests together with Cadillac and the talent.
A repeatable way to build the program.
At Here Media, I was interested in partnerships that went beyond putting a sponsor around an existing piece of content.
I wanted to create a reason for the brand, the talent and our own properties to be in the same conversation.
Master of Style gave us a repeatable way to do that.
It also gave the sales organization something new to sell: a custom partnership built around an idea, rather than a collection of media placements.
VP of Marketing, Here Media.
As VP of Marketing, I led the brand partnerships team responsible for creating and selling these programs.
Sometimes I generated the big idea. Sometimes the team did.
Either way, I was responsible for helping turn the idea into something the organization could actually sell and deliver.
That meant working across sales, editorial, creative, production, talent, experiential, PR and social.
I was blueprinting the system around the idea.
Master of Style ran for three years.
Master of Style ran for three years.
Each year gave us another opportunity to develop the idea: Damon Cardasis established the model, Emil Wilbekin brought it into the real world, and Charlie Carver and the Cadillac XT4 showed how the platform could incorporate a specific product story.
The program gave Cadillac a way to participate in culture with Out rather than simply advertise around it.
And it gave Here Media a partnership model we could build, sell and evolve.
Did the program work?
Yes. Cadillac renewed the program for two additional years.
Style has staying power.
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