RealSimple.com Partners With Evite to Create Branded Online Invitations

Chandra Johnson-Greene – AudienceDevelopment.com

Time Inc’s Real Simple announced this week a partnership with online invitation and social event planning service Evite.com to create an exclusive collection of free online invitations featuring the signature photography of Real Simple.

The collection has 25 invitation designs featuring photography themed to a variety of occasions, including holidays and “everyday celebrations,” such birthdays, cocktail parties, dinner parties, baby showers, etc. (These specific invitations were modeled after RealSimple.com’s Everyday Celebrations channel.)

“We already knew that our users are big on online gifting, shopping and entertainment,” Tanya Singer, executive director, RealSimple.com, told The Circulator. “So the idea of having online invitations made sense. We wanted to create something beautiful and Real Simple-branded. We did the invitations for occasions that you would expect like bridal showers and weddings, but we also did less traditional ones like game nights and gift wrapping parties.”

The invitations are featured on Evite.com in a branded "Real Simple" gallery and on RealSimple.com in the Celebrations section of the site. In addition, users who visit Evite.com’s “Hosting Tips” page will be urged to click on a link that will direct them back to RealSimple.com for additional party planning tips. So far, Real Simple has promoted the invitations in its e-newsletter as well as in its December print issue.

While the two companies will not be sharing email lists, Singer says, they will participate in co-marketing opportunities. Real Simple will send co-branded messages to the 2 million email addresses on its list, while Evite.com will include co-branded promotions in its e-newsletter.

Singer adds that more Real Simple-branded e-invitiations are in the works, hopefully in time for spring occasions such as Easter and Passover.

With over 20 million registered users, Evite is the leading online invitation service on the Web, which RealSimple.com currently reaches 7.7 million readers per month.