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PARIS, France — L'Officiel is expanding its US ambitions beyond media.
The French fashion and lifestyle magazine and network of websites, the largest asset of the family-owned Jalou Media Group, is deepening its partnership with US private equity firm Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Group, with which invested $3 million into the company’s US launch earlier this year. (LOfficielUSA.com went live in November and a bi-monthly print edition will be released in February.)
Now the two entities are announcing the formation of a $50 million investment fund that will support emerging brands across fashion, food, beverages, hotels and resorts — “every field that we cover editorially,” says Benjamin Eymere, chief executive of the Jalou Media Group — with capital and marketing support. The majority of the fund, 75 percent, will target globally listed companies, while the other 25 percent will target private and emerging ones.
“It’s a synergy model,” says Eymere. “What we are looking at is how can we leverage our marketing capacities to grow the value of the company…and to merge it with financial capabilities. If you have limited funding when you are going choose your marketing budget, you are going to make arbitrage and that can be to our detriment.”
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For many digital media companies inside and beyond fashion, competing with Google and Facebook for digital advertising dollars is a challenge right now. But L’Officiel is aiming to distinguish itself by its access to a luxury millennial consumer. Invested brands will receive preferred rates for L'Officiel’s print and digital advertising campaigns as well as event production, branded content, video, social media and other related services.
“Whether a brand that is younger has aspirations and has an image and has an idea, everything has a hurdle and has a cost,” says Anthony Romano, L’Officiel Fund’s managing director and GEM Group managing direction. “The idea of the targeted access to the luxury consumer, that’s not something that is just out there, that if you get the right virality of a message, [you can reach online]. You need to have a specific target and there is a cost to do that.”
L'Officiel is currently active in 24 countries and generates over $70 million in revenue annually, according to the company.
Editor's Note: This article was revised on 8th December 2017. An earlier version of this article misstated that the L'Officiel USA website launched in October and that the print issue will be released in March. The website launched in November and the issue is due in February.
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