Ad Slump Gives Dollars to Events

The current advertising slump may actually be helping the event industry. As magazines and other media outlets scheme to come up with ways to win prospective advertisers, putting together special events is an increasingly popular way to sweeten the deal. Food & Wine magazine now throws between two and five events a week, compared with two a month in the late 1990s, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal about how media outlets are pandering to advertisers. To help its advertisers win publicity and exposure to its audience, the magazine holds events including cocktail parties, store openings and wine tastings. Similarly, Fortune now holds "roughly one mammoth event a month," the Journal reports, including a Merrill Lynch wingding at the Road Atlanta Racetrack, where the company's clients could drive a race car at 120 miles per hour.

Posted 05.15.02

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