In the world of publishing content is key, particularly when it is celebrity focused. Today we’re going to get the inside scoop from Lindsey Benoit on what it’s like to work as a deputy editor in entertainment and partnerships.
About Lindsey Benoit O’Connel: Deputy Editor of Entertainment at Thrive Global
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell is the Deputy Editor of Entertainment at Thrive Global and the creator of Happily Imperfect Mama — a lifestyle brand celebrating the amazingly-messy and breathtakingly-chaotic aspects of motherhood. At Thrive, O’Connell is responsible for all of the celebrity and thought leader content; as well as booking and producing Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global Podcast and talent curation for WaitWhat’s Meditative Story podcast.
Prior to her role at Thrive, O’Connell was the Entertainment + Special Projects Director at Hearst booking covers, features, videos and online stories for Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping, Redbook and Woman’s Day. She had worked on major initiatives like Vogue’s Fashion Rocks and Vanity Fair’s Movie’s Rock and launched a passion project while at Good Housekeeping — the GH Lab experiential store in the Mall of America with Amazon. She is an advocate for skin and cervical cancer —as a survivor of both — and speaks out about postpartum anxiety and depression awareness. She works in Soho and lives in Astoria, NY with her husband Brian and her adorable son, Hunter.
Episode Transcript:
Sherri Langburt: I know you started your career in PR, public relations, and doing a lot of shifts. How did you end up from PR onto the editorial side of the business?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: I started out actually thinking I was going to be a journalist all along, from a very young age. And then in college my best friend Lauren said, “You should be a publicist.” And I was like, “What’s a publicist?” And so I looked it up, and it sounded really interesting. And so I started taking classes and studying it, and I got internships really young.
I started interning at Random House, and I interned for the editorial side and the PR side. And I felt that at that time in my life, PR was where I wanted to be. And I worked for some amazing companies, worked for Conde Nast, and I did big red carpet events under my mentor Susan Portnoy, who taught me so much about PR and celebrity in my early 20s.
Then the recession happened, and I was going to lose my job because those big budget events like Fashion Rocks and Movies Rock were going away because that was just a really scary time.
I actually got my walking papers. But then there was a job opening at Self for a publicist job under Lauren Theodore, who was an amazing, amazing boss of mine as well. And I vied for it. And Susan was like, “We’re going to get you that job.”
I actually got my walking papers. But then there was a job opening at Self for a publicist job under Lauren Theodore, who was an amazing, amazing boss of mine as well. And I vied for it. And Susan was like, “We’re going to get you that job.”
I went in as PR. And gosh, this is down back in, what, 2009, right, when the recession happened. And so as I was there, magazines were a little bit slow to the back then, but the internet was really starting to amp up. And Lucy Danziger editor in chief did this series called Five on 5, and it was a webisode series where she interviewed talent. And Laura Brounstein, who was the entertainment director there, let me book some of the talent. And she took me under her wing and she helped me, taught me how to book talent.
I was still doing my other job as a publicist under Lauren. And Lauren was awesome enough to let me fly there. And that was the beginning of me taking a stab at entertainment booking. And that was the beginning of me starting my very slow transition to editorial, which happened over several years. And so as I transitioned into my career, I went on to work at Women’s Health, and at women’s health they allowed me to start booking. I started building more and more relationships and they allowed me to start, not only do PR there, I headed up the PR department there, but also booking partnerships in terms of TV shows.
I would help do an editorial feature in book with the talent on the Today Show, and do a great segment. And I started building more and more connections, and then they started letting me book inside celebrities. And so I was doing two jobs at once, but learning so much. And because I was doing two jobs at once, I was building a parallel career while still maintaining my other.
That is when I actually raised my hand after a while, and I said,
“You know what? I really would like to start transitioning my career.”
I approached my editor in chief, and I said, “I’d like a title change. I’d like to be able to, yes, keep doing your PR, but I’d like to be special projects director as well.” And we had a big conversation. We talked about what that would look like, and she let me.
As my title started changing, so did my responsibilities, and then eventually things just kept kind of evolving for me. And the PR stopped, partnerships grew, the entertainment booking grew, and that’s where I kind of kept going until I stopped doing PR altogether, and everything else took over.
Sherri Langburt: Okay. So I’m going to probably ask you some off topic questions because I find this so fascinating. It’s a world beyond me.
How do you just go book celebrity talent? How? You go to their agent? What do you do?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: A lot of prayer. No. There’s a lot more to it than people think. It’s not just saying, “Oh, I want this person to be on my cover. Oh, I want to interview this person.” You have to think about it strategically if you’re going to do it right. One, you have to think about why they make sense for you. You have to think on their side, do they have a project going on that they want to promote because you want to be able to help them with their initiatives as well.
There’s a lot of relationship building. So it’s constant conversations with talent reps, publicists, managers, and depending on if it’s a paid opportunity, an agent to know what their talent are doing, who has things on the roster, and what their interests are. You wouldn’t want to go to a celebrity about a podcast when they don’t like podcasts, nor would you want to go to that publicist if the publicist is anti-podcast too. And that happens.
You really have to think about who the perfect person is, and what that perfect formula is, and then deliver.
The pitching process is you have to get approval from your editor in chief or your bosses to making sure it’s the right fit for the brand. And having backups because your first ask might be a definite no. And then you have to go to the next person. And so it’s a lot of conversation. It’s carefully crafted plans. It’s a lot of back and forth. And it’s getting used to the word no. I get rejected a lot. So I got to build a thick skin.
Sherri Langburt: Well, I guess there’s the trade off because doing events in PR is hard too. You’re out every single night. So I guess they’re all hard, right?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Oh yeah. I think that with PR you’re still getting rejection, right? So I think my job in PR really helped me become an editor because of the writing you have to do in PR has to be so succinct, and you have to make sure all your message points are delivered appropriately. Every word matters. And I think that that matters when you’re thinking about planning a pitch for a celebrity, for what you want them to do, every word matters.
I also think understanding from the PR side, I know what what my brand will need, and I also know from a publicist standpoint how to protect the brand, how to protect the publicist, how to make sure both of their interests are being taken into account, which I think is important when you’re working on both sides.
You want to make sure that everybody’s happy because that’s going to deliver the best content.
In PR, you get used to rejection too. You’re pitching the New York Times, or you’re pitching all these great story ideas. And you think this is such a great story. Well, they’re getting a million of, this is such a great story. I never realized the extent of how many pitches an editor gets until I became one. Now the volume in my inbox is so great. And I’m like, wow. And there’s some great ideas. You just either don’t have the bandwidth, it might not be a perfect fit. But because I was on the other side, I try my hardest to email everybody back. Even if it’s a I’m so sorry, it’s a pass. Because I know what it feels like to never get an email back.
Sherri Langburt: Oh no. I think in anything, it’s like sales is the same thing, you send an email, PR, editorial, it’s all the same. It’s just having the skin to keep going back and trying again.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Yeah, exactly.
A no to me is just a reason to maybe update my pitch to be a little bit stronger, or to say, okay, this wasn’t right for this celebrity, but do you have any other clients that might be a fit?
Just open up a dialogue with that person to really understand why the rep doesn’t like it, or why their talent might not like it. And sometimes it’s just a bandwidth issue. They’re filming, they’re busy. Or sometimes it’s because it’s truly not a right fit for them. Or sometimes it’s because their rep is just not thinking it’s a right fit. And there’s a thousand asks they get every day, and they can’t do everything right. So you can’t take it personally. And I think that that was a lesson that I didn’t learn until maybe five minutes ago.
Sherri Langburt: Well, no, it’s true. And I had an uncle, he’s used to say, “If they don’t let me in the front door, I go through a window. And if the windows closed, I find the garage.” But the rejection is definitely hard. To your point, nine times out of ten, has nothing to do even with your pitch or with anything. It’s the people on the other end. They’re too busy, or it’s not a fit.
Sherri Langburt: So I get it. And I also appreciate, it’s amazing that you’re sending back responses to people because few people do that.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Well, I just know how it felt to be on the other side. And I think that that makes me a better editor, right, and a better Booker because I understand that the publicists are busy. And they’re pitching me. And it’s also, listen, they have a bunch of clients that might not be the A plus list, but that are growing and emerging. If I can find something interesting that may work with that talent, I want to help them too. Because I understand that I’m not always going to get the A plus list rock stars. But I could get something really amazing and compelling from somebody that’s emerging and help them grow.
Sherri Langburt: Exactly.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: And I think that that’s important too.
When did you switch over to Thrive Global?
I started at Thrive Global in May 2019. So it’s almost a year now.
Tell us about the company, what’s the company about? What’s the mission? Obviously we know it’s Arianna Huffington. Tell us more.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: When are you thinking about I have been in magazines for the greater part of my years, so 15 plus years I’ve been in the publishing industry. And so this was a big change for me to leave magazines in particular. And I love magazines. And it wasn’t a decision I made quickly. It wasn’t a decision I made lightly either. I had an amazing career, and I loved working with Good Housekeeping and Cosmo and Women’s Health. My editor in chiefs were brilliant, and believed in me, and let me take chances. So everybody I worked with at Hearst was so supportive, so wonderful. So it wasn’t that I was looking for a job, I wasn’t.
But one of the people that worked here at Thrive had reached out to me, and said, “I know you’d probably never leave Hearst, but I need to tell you about this company. It’s really making a big difference, and I think it’s up your alley. And would you entertain a phone call?” And you always entertain a phone call. You have to especially in the publishing world where things are not always so safe, and magazines are closing. And they’re amazing, or they’re changing and evolving, jobs are being eliminated. So you have to kind of think maybe I should take the call.
I took the call, and I learned all about Thrive. Thrive is a behavior change company.
What’s so unique about it is the fact the mission is really trying to change the game in work life integration.
Everything we do at its core is helping to alleviate stress and really fight the burnout epidemic. And so that can be in the office, that can be in your relationships, that can be as a parent.
The content that Thrive delivers in the articles that we write are all driven by what Arianna likes to call micro steps. Small things that you can do to make a big impact. It’s all science backed. So for instance, you’re setting a goal for yourself. And if it’s too big, you’re guaranteed to fail if it’s too big. But if you build these small little micro steps into your day, they’re going to grow. And you’re going to form those habits, and you’re going to be able to reach that goal and actually keep it, which I think is fascinating.
Thrive is a SaaS company actually, which is very cool. And Arianna and team are building this app, which is B2B. And they have curriculum where they go into companies and they help companies give curriculum to their employees, which will help them. There’s the thriving mind, there’s thriving relationships, there’s thriving parenthood. And it’s all of this curriculum that’s going to help their employees achieve more, help them with organization, prioritization, and it’s really making a big difference and a big way impact in their lives.
Sherri Langburt: Yeah, I noticed them, I was kind of poking through, so I did see it was a SaaS platform. Are the apps developed, and they’re already in market, or they’re in development?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: They are worked on and they’re evolving and growing as we speak. And so there are companies that are actively using them now.
Sherri Langburt: That’s awesome. And so my question to you is, just this is my background, kind of I’ve worked at Weight Watchers, all of these different micro steps we would talk about, but I noticed in your content it’s a lot of other content, and nothing diet, food, fitness-related. I’m going to assume that’s intentional.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Well actually we are growing our, what we call, fuel content. So one of the things that I do is I interview amazing role models, thought leaders, celebrities about their expertise, and what their micro steps might be.
We are launching a series with certified trainers, and nutritionist, registered dietitians that are giving their helpful micro steps on how to fit more movement into the day, and how to prioritize movement and to make smarter nutrition choices, and ways that you can do so without falling off of that fitness bandwagon, or coming into a lull. Or when you have a lull, what you can do. So we are doing that, but Thrive is always science backed and always expert based. So it’s about things that will help you reach your goals realistically.
Does everyone that you interview have to be celebrity status or could they be a subject matter expert, but might not be a celebrity?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Oh no, there’s celebrities, there’s CEOs, [inaudible 00:14:40], nutritionists. Yeah. Everybody.
Who was the first celebrity you ever booked, and why, or how?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Oh my gosh, the first celebrity I ever booked. Oh my goodness gracious. That’s a hard one. I want to say the first celebrity I might… I mean, I was at Self at the time, so I have to say maybe it was somebody like Jillian Michaels whom I’ve worked with over a number of years at all of the publications that I’ve worked with. I think she’s so amazing and dynamic, and keeps changing. Must have been for Five on Five with Lucy Danziger. And I’d have to look back. I know that I booked Katie Lee, I believe back then. Oh gosh, that’s a really hard one.
Sherri Langburt: How about the first person–
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: I’ve worked with so many celebrities over the years.
Sherri Langburt: This is just fascinating.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: It’s so funny. My goodness, I mean we’re going back to 2007 here.
Who was the first person, celebrity wise, that you booked at Thrive? Can you remember that one?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Yes, I can remember that. The first person that I booked at Thrive was Sanaa Lathan actually. And she was doing this really cool role the new Twilight Zone. And I think she’s fascinating in general. I mean she has had such an interesting career. She’s so thoughtful and introspective. And she meditates, which I think is really interesting, and everything about meditation is so great for your health. Arianna is a huge advocate for meditation. That was my first foray into really understanding the impact of it and doing research on that because I think it was my first or second weekend in the office. She was the first interview, and she was wonderful. She did a video interview with us, and then that catapulted all of the interviews from that point forward.
How do you build an influencer marketing program that you think works with a publisher like this?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Well I think, building an influencer campaign for anybody, anywhere you are, anywhere you’re working, there’s a few things you have to think about first. One, what are the deliverables, and what are the needs, and what are your goals? If you don’t know exactly what you want your goal to be first and foremost, then it’s really hard to think about who’s going to fit that mold.
Are you looking to reach a specific type of influencer, like a mom influencer or business?
Does it matter if they have a huge reach, or do you want really impactful reach with micro-influencers.
Because both are valuable, it’s just in a different way. If this is branded content, and you’re paying money for a campaign that’s sponsored, you have to think about it from many different angles. What is the reach from these people? Do you want many people, or do you want to invest in one?
And a lot of times these influencers will have brand alignment with other brands. So you have to do a lot of research beforehand in order to deliver some ideas of who could be the best fit for you to make sure they don’t have any conflicts before you even reach out to them. Because then you’re just wasting the client’s time getting them excited about somebody that’s never going to say yes to them because they’re already aligned somewhere else.
And then you have to make sure that it’s authentic to the brand. One of my most interesting interviews that I’ve ever done, it was actually with the Bella Twins and they are WWE superstars. They’re entrepreneurs, they have a wine company, they have a clothing company. They are fascinating because they’re brilliant. And you’re like, oh, wrestling girls, what? They’re wrestlers. They’re so much more, and they’re so dynamic. And they’re huge on social media.
And Brie Bella said, “You have to be authentic to your brand because if I started hawking a cheeseburger, my fans would be like, ‘What is this? This is so not on brand for her. She would never endorse that. This feels awkward.'” And then maybe she would lose loyalty. And then she said something that was also interesting. She was like, “Don’t always look at the influencer’s number.” She’s like, “Because you never know.” She’s like, “You have to make sure their content is actually authentic and speaks to your brand and makes sense.”
If you’re going to go after somebody that wouldn’t do that, it doesn’t make sense. It’s not going to move your t-shirts or your car, or whatever you’re trying to promote, or even your message. Because the people that are following them are inevitably, you want them to be true to what you need and actually engage. And I thought that was really interesting. And it really kind of changed the game for me for who I recommend.
It’s not necessarily about reaching billions of people. It’s more about the quality.
Sherri Langburt: Yeah, and we see that too. I mean obviously the different asks that come to us, it’s like, “Oh, we want mega, we want macro, we want micro.” And sometimes you’re just so surprised. Someone who has 7,000 followers gets so many comments that are real. Not just like, “Hey, hi, how are you?” But real about what they just posted. So definitely it’s really about the quality I think as well. But again, thinking about the different mission. If you just want awareness, then you do need that reach.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Oh, absolutely.
Sherri Langburt: But one of the things I’m curious about is you brought up B2B. Now knowing that part of your play over there at Thrive is really B2B, have you thought about, and you might not be able to say, working with B2B influencers. More like HR influencers because we’re getting more of those requests top on the B2B side.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Celebrity is a whole different ball game when you’re booking celebs. And what they can do, and how much they get paid to do things from the B2B side. There are amazing people out there that have great followings, may not be your household name, but can really deliver for you.
I think that it goes back to the whole point of what is your goal? Are you trying to talk to moms? Are you trying to talk to business leaders? Are you trying to talk to potential clients? And looking at that, and then aligning yourself with the right person there. And then when you’re doing that, if you’re a brand, you have to understand that if you’re asking them to endorse you, you’re telling them that they can’t, for a time being, endorse somebody else, like your competitor, and so on and so forth.
There is compensation that needs to be discussed in that kind of opportunity. So that’s something to think about when you are going B2B is making sure you budget accordingly. Because you think, oh, well, I’m paying them to do this. And it’s not that heavy of a lift. But think about it from this perspective. You are asking them to maybe do a post, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but you’re also taking them off the market for a little while. And so that’s revenue for them. So it’s interesting. It’s an interesting play there.
Sherri Langburt: Yeah. And it’s also, I mean, specifically the micros and the nanos, it’s also making sure they turn off their ads. Because a lot of times if it’s a blog post, there’s ads popping up everywhere. So that’s also the revenue.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: 100%. And so what’s going to take for them to actually do that? Right? And what you’re comfortable with. And maybe it’s they can’t turn off all their ads, that’s their livelihood. Right? But is it a competitor or something like that to think about?
Sherri Langburt: Yeah. I think that we always say, there’s a clause. And it can be larger or smaller. Sometimes it’s seven day window on either side. Sometimes for some brands it’s three months on either side. And then the compensation increases depending the scope.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Exactly.
Where do you think the hardest part of influencer marketing comes in your role, and any suggestions on how to remedy that?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: I think the hardest thing is the competition. There’s a lot of brands vying for the same people. And it’s also, the hardest thing is really being able to communicate to the talent we don’t have unlimited budgets all the time, and why they should be interested in this, and getting them on board and getting them excited. But also, that’s a really interesting question.
I really think that if you’re doing it right, there aren’t many challenges.
Because you’re doing your research, you’re approaching people that make sense for your brand. And maybe they already have something in the works, or they don’t have the bandwidth, and that’s okay.
But as a Booker, if you are doing your research and making sure you’re communicating to your clients, or your editor or whomever, and planning for the first two people to say no to you so you have three or four options to go, you’re setting yourself up for success. So I think that if you know how to communicate effectively, if you go in and you say, “If this is what you’re looking for, this is the minimum I’m going to need to do so from a branding perspective.”
Or, they do not like to talk about X, if you’re trying to set it up just an editorial interview. Make sure that you go in and you are telling everybody in advance to set expectations and to make sure everybody’s comfortable. Then you’re going to avoid so much drama and all of the challenges that may arise. I mean, listen, hiccups are going to come, but if you really prepare in advance and you take that time ahead of time, you’re going to set yourself up to avoid a lot of stress.
Sherri Langburt: Yeah, it’s all about kind of really defining the scope and the expectations. And I feel that there are guidelines that we always use, but a lot of times companies or brands don’t know that formula, and what to include, and how specific you have to be.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Right. Exactly. And editorially, booking covers, there’s a lot of competition. And you are constantly vying for other magazine’s covers that might be sexier than yours, or have a bigger reach, or may not have a bigger reach, but they might really like that fashion director a little bit more. Or the photographer that you want to work with won’t work with that magazine. There’s so many different elements that you have to work and plan for.
Maybe they don’t want to do an interview that is with the focus of this particular magazine. And so there’s a lot of competition there. So if you are communicating with the talent rep in advance with everything, with the limitations, and what they really want, and then you’re communicating with your editor or your boss about what you want there, and you’re getting all those stars aligned, it’s just, I think a lot of times we have so much on our plate that we’re trying to hurry to get things right done instead of really taking that extra 10 minutes just to plan. And that’s really what helps.
And I used to rush, rush, rush, and get so disappointed when things weren’t going in the right direction. But it’s because I didn’t think through the process, and I was like, of course the person isn’t going to say yes me, they’re going to do this. They’re going to do this other magazine. And that makes sense.
If I just had a backup plan, it would have gone smoother.
So it took time to learn that. But it really helped.
Sherri Langburt: And I guess it adds in, it’s one thing if it’s for your brand, but it adds in a layer of complexity obviously when it’s for another sponsor that you’re partnering with. So how have you leveraged influencers in a great way to support brand sponsorships?
Are there any kind of guidelines for working with a third party brand and your company, and then the influencers?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Yeah. I definitely did that when I worked in magazines a lot because you have to have your editorial integrity to make sure that the content is editorially driven. But then when a brand’s involved, there’s that. So you need to lay it out and make sure the difference between editorial is they’re not getting paid for editorial. And so it’s just you’re getting great content, you’re delivering it, you’re being able to write it in a really creative way.
There are guidelines when it comes to branded. So you need to be really buttoned up with your agreement. You need to be really buttoned up with what you’re asking for from the beginning. So working with your team to make sure you know what the deliverables are in advance, how much you want them to post, how often, what do they have to tag? They have to make sure that they are tagging ad when you’re paying them, hashtag ad.
So you have to set that up for them in advance, and you are letting the talent know exactly what they’re agreeing to in advance, and making sure that everything that the brand needs to have in there is in there. Everything that you’re edit team needs in there is in there. And then leaving room for your company to be able to edit that content and have a back and forth. Because the influencer is going to write everything that they think is best for them. They want it in their voice, but they’re getting paid, so they still might need to be a little bit of wiggle room with working with them on what the content is.
again, you want to have a clear plan and delivering in bullet points, or however you want to format it, exactly what you’re asking the influencer for, what the tags are, what they’re going to need to be saying. Do they have to supply images? How many? Do they need to be original? Can they repurpose? What the timeline is, and making sure that that is all laid out. And knowing that in advance before you even pitch them.
Sherri Langburt: And knowing that you can edit them, or that you have some kind of out, if you decide that it isn’t great, and you want to remove it, right?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Once you have a contract, unless it’s in your contract that that goes away, but if you’re talking about money, you need to make sure that that person is who you want, and that you have the agreement there. And in the clause say that this might be edited with your approval, or however you want to phrase it. But once you have that contract signed, that person is going to move forward with you in the deal, or potential, or you may have to pay them a kill fee or something like that if it does go away.
Can you tell us your most memorable influencer campaign, not necessarily with a celebrity?
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Oh, there’s so many good ones. So this wasn’t branded. This is a very cool campaign that I worked with. So Holly Whidden was the entertainment hub director at Hearst. And she approached me, we would brainstorm sometimes. She’s brilliant. And we brainstorm sometimes about ideas. And she had Fox Searchlight call her and say, “We have Deadpool 2 coming out, and Ryan Reynolds wants to do something different. We want to do something different, what could it be?”
And so she and I are brainstorming. I was at Good Housekeeping. And I always think of Good Housekeeping for anything because it’s my favorite. I love that brand so much. I said, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we did something with Good Housekeeping, like a Deadpool flip cover, or something like that?” Totally unexpected. She pitched it to them, and they were like, yes. Never in a million years.
Then I had to talk to my Editor-in-Chief Jane Francisco who is so cool. And I would throw some very zany ideas at her, and she would be like, “Oh no, what’s coming next?” But she’s like, “Let me watch the movie.” She watched it. She goes, “This is Good Housekeeping. We absolutely can’t put Deadpool on the cover. This is crazy.” And so we kind of talked a little bit. And she’s like, “What if we did a special edition cover.” And it wasn’t going to all of our subscribers because that would be… It’s a very traditional magazine. But we could do something special for them.
And we did it, and it’s a collector’s item now. It’s so cool. And we did it for the December issue. We shot Ryan Reynolds in the Deadpool costume on the cover. We actually did an actual shoot. The Deadpool team wrote cover lines with us. Ryan penned an editor’s letter. There was a spread inside the magazine, How to Carve a Chicken by Deadpool. And really funny stuff. And we printed them. So it was the actual magazine, but just with this special Deadpool cover and insert for the Deadpool content.
And then the Fox Searchlight team was brilliant, and they put it out to all of the festivals. And they really did this really cool grassroots campaign about it. And it was so interesting and so cool to see. It was so unexpected. It gave Good Housekeeping some street cred I think. People were probably looking at it being like, “Good Housekeeping, get out of here.” But people got exposed to the magazine in a totally different way.
We took a chance. It was fun. And I think it was so impactful because it was unexpected.
I think that nobody in a million years would have ever thought Good Housekeeping would be one of the places that this movie would have been promoted. But it made sense. It really did. Because people reading it, comedy, humor, think it’s fun. And it also is a really fresh magazine where they’re reaching the demographic of everybody from 20 to 80, right? Everybody has the opportunity to read Good Housekeeping At every age and stage. And so it was just cool. And so that was one of the coolest things. And Holly, she just saw these cool ideas, and Jane, and it all worked together so nicely. And it was very fun. It was very fun. It was probably one of the highlights of my career. It was very cool.
Sherri Langburt: I mean, it definitely also fits with his sense of humor because he has that. So it definitely ties in so perfectly.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: I mean if you Google Good Housekeeping and Deadpool, you will not be disappointed.
Sherri Langburt: Okay. I’m going to do that. Especially because I’m Canadian and so is he. So I’m going to close with my last question which I always ask.
Name an influencer that you love to follow, but hate to admit that you do.
Lindsey Benoit O’Connell: Oh my gosh. Okay. I mean this is truth telling time. Spencer Pratt from the Hills. I think his content is so hilarious. They were the couple you loved to hate back in the day, but he is such a good dad, and he has this really cool crystal company. And I think he’s content with his kid is just very cute. I was working with Cosmo at the time, and they were going to do amazing Hills cover. I started looking into the talent. And I started following him, and I didn’t unfollow him after because I just think it’s really kind of funny. So he’s one I think is pretty cool. Really, well, I just admitted it publicly, but yeah.
Sherri Langburt: That’s great. I’m going to check out the crystal company too. So thank you so much Lindsey for taking the time, and good luck with Thrive Global. It sounds amazing. And going to keep our eye out.