Bloomberg Pursuits is hoping to up its fashion cred via a new partnership with WME/IMG.
Bloomberg’s luxury-centric publication will unveil a six-episode series called “Success By Design,” which is on the business side of fashion. WME/IMG will produce each two- to four-minute show with editorial direction from The Pursuits team headed by editorial director Emma Rosenblum.
“Each episode will focus on a moment in time for a fashion brand or designer and tell the story about their big break,” Rosenblum told WWD.
Although the series is still in production, the editor offered that one episode traces Marc Jacobs’ career from the point he was fired from Perry Ellis for his grunge collection to his impact on streetwear through his current designs for his own brand. The series, which will launch on Bloomberg Pursuits’ Web site in the fall, covers Michael Kors getting discovered by Bergdorf Goodman’s Dawn Mello; Donna Karen’s Seven Easy Pieces collection, and how Ralph Lauren obtained the Polo trademark from Brooks Brothers.
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Bloomberg first showed the sizzle reel of the new series at its digital new fronts on Monday afternoon.
The series is part of a push for Pursuits to crack into the fashion industry – and its ad dollars – as well as a broader expansion of the brand in digital and TV. In mid-April, Pursuits relaunched its site and revealed plans to have a presence on Bloomberg TV with short spots now, and eventually, a show of its own by the end of the year.
Even though Pursuits has an affluent, luxury-consuming audience, it still has had trouble breaking into the fashion world — and that’s where WME/IMG comes in.
“Bloomberg has been looking for a way to get into the fashion world and get that access,” Rosenblum said. “When this opportunity presented itself, it was a no-brainer…to up our cachet.”
According to Barnett Zitron, managing director of MADE, which was acquired by WME/IMG last year, the deal with Bloomberg allowed it to speak to a new consumer, which he described as business leaders with (a lot of) disposable income.
“We had a series of meetings going back months and months ago with Bloomberg and we realized quickly that we are two puzzle pieces that fit together nicely,” he said, offering that Pursuits provides the reporting, ideas and business savvy for the series, while his company brings in the talent and production.
Although he would not disclose the financials central to the partnership, Barnett said the companies are in talks with advertisers to sponsor the series. He underscored that the series is editorial in nature, however, and not branded content.
“We’re very focused on content and producing fashion content,” Zitron said, adding that his company’s latest “directive” is to focus on fashion.
Citing WME/IMG’s Made2Measure channel and MADE Fashion Week acquisition, he said that the firm is on the hunt for more initiatives and partnerships that “introduce” the company to “new audiences.”
At its NewFront presentation held at its New York headquarters, Bloomberg unveiled plans to relaunch its custom content studio dubbed “Kinection,” which will make use of the media company’s data and multi-platform scale.
The company has developed Bloomberg VidPlus, a native data-driven digital ad offering, which allows advertiser messaging to appear during a program. Messaging can pop up at relevant times during an interview, for example. The firm also developed Rithm (as in “algorithm”), an editorial video animation product that can synthesize data to create animated videos within minutes to illustrate a concept.
Other big editorial initiatives included the addition of Bloomberg Technology, a new vertical that covers the intersection between tech and business, which will go live this fall, as well as the “gender equality index” or “GEI.” The index, which will launch Tuesday on Bloomberg terminals, tracks the gender and diversity gap at companies. It coincides with the launch of “Walk The Talk,” a video series on gender equality and the importance of women in executive leadership roles.
Bloomberg will roll out a video series “Peer To Peer,” a show that will be hosted by philanthropist and financier David Rubenstein, in which he interviews business leaders, as well as “Big Problems. Big Thinkers,” which will address everything from ethics and philanthropy to religion and love. It is directed by Terre Blair and includes interviews with Warren Buffett, the Dalai Lama, Madeleine Albright and Steven Soderbergh.
Bloomberg chief executive Justin Smith closed out the NewFront presentation, saying all the new products are part of a larger goal to be the top global business company on all platforms, all over the world.
“In a time of disruption and retrenchment, this is arguably one of the most arresting visions of any media company operating out there today,” Smith boasted. “Think about the backdrop and what an historic time it is in media… traditional media players being upended as the weight of their legacy models hold them back, and then the new players who are built largely around platforms and scale are beginning to see the limitations of those strategies.”
The ceo said Bloomberg takes from the “best” of both worlds (naturally), maintaining a strong journalistic tradition coupled with a broad, global, multi-platform reach with data to boot.