Sports Illustrated Using Online Auctions To Sell Advertising

Sports Illustrated (SI) has "begun using online auctions to sell some of its print, digital and event-marketing inventory," according to Nat Ives of AD AGE. SI "hopes that the online marketplace can help gather advertisers quickly for time-sensitive products such as commemorative issues." SI execs said that the move was "partly to recruit those advertisers that aren't in close touch with the sales force." SI is the first Time Inc. magazine to "try an online auction." SI Group President Mark Ford said, "There are many advertisers out there that would like the opportunity to understand what the Sports Illustrated brand is about, what those offerings are, that we just physically can't get to. ... We used to send e-mails out to the sales reps in the Boston area saying, 'Look we're having a commemorative and you've got two days to sell into that. That's not efficient use of their time. Now, through e-mail blasts, we can say, 'Here's a great offering'" (ADAGE.com, 8/15).