NEW YORK -- Working Mother magazine, published by Lang Communications here, has announced a partnership with Peapod, the on-line grocery shopping and delivery service that fills orders through local supermarkets. Working Mother will provide monthly editorial information to Peapod's 11,000 subscribers. It will also offer category-exclusive on-line sponsorship opportunities to brand marketers.
When subscribers click on the Working Mother Tips icon, explained Sandy Hayworth, the publication's Midwest manager, they will find original editorial information from Working Mother. "At the end of the page, it will say, 'Brought to you by . . . ' and we'll put a brand marketer's name and logo there."
Hayworth added, "This venture provides a much sought-after retail connection that extends ad messages from the pages of Working Mother to the aisles of the Peapod-affiliated supermarkets. It creates a synergy all-around."
Peapod sources its groceries in San Francisco from Safeway, and in Chicago from Jewel Osco Food Stores. The company is close to setting up shop in Boston. Magazine executives hope to tie-in specific products with the editorial coverage. Planned topics include the Busy Woman's Holiday Survival Guide, and Birthday Parties.
The relationship between Working Mother and Peapod is believed to be the first of its kind. No other parenting magazine is currently on-line this way.
Derrick Milligan, marketing development manager at Evanston, Ill.-based Peapod, also expressed his enthusiasm over the connection with Working Mother.
"Most of Peapod's clients are very busy, very time-starved professional women. It's essentially the same audience that's reading Working Mother. Over 70% of Peapod's subscribers are women." Most other on-line services cite men as their majority subscribers, Milligan said.
With more than 11,000 households nationally on Peapod, said Milligan, "We're not a compelling mass media, but we're an excellent on-line test. We're working with these companies to gain learning, insight and information. And these companies are finding out what the on-line hot buttons are for consumers."
Peapod hopes to be in 30 markets and serving a million or more households within the next five to seven years, he said. Peapod has recently spun off a new division called Peapod Interactive, to service the advertising and research needs of packaged goods companies affiliated with Peapod. Brand marketers signed on are Kraft Foods, Bristol-Myers and Heinz.
