Gift registry service

Jane, that sassy purveyor of first-person copy, this week hopes to help everyone get exactly what they want this holiday season with its first online gift registry service, not-so-subtly titled "Give It to Me."

Appearing in Jane's December issue, which will hit newsstands this week, "Give It to Me" features gift ideas from 11 advertisers in a special 19-page advertorial, as well as an online section (at janemag.com/gimme). Readers can register on janemag.com to create their own holiday gift registry, then the site will e-mail the list to potential gift givers.

"We're going to send them a cute note that takes the onus off of you," explained Eva Dillon, vp and publisher of Jane. That's because the note, which is tailored to each recipient, is written as if Jane has gotten the reader "to spill what she really wants this holiday season. (She'd be much too polite herself to tell you.) So we're giving you the inside scoop. Aren't we tricky?"

The e-mail then tells where a gift giver can purchase the items, either online or by calling participating stores. Advertisers pay a 10 percent premium for the promotion, which includes both the in-book and online page.

"All we're doing is sending an e-mail to a highly qualified list of buyers," said Dillon, noting that the point is not to drive traffic back to janemag.com, but to the retail point of purchase.

As for collected e-mail names, Dillon said Jane will use them to build up its own database, which now includes about 30,000 addresses. Dillon said Jane will use its existing list to promote "Give It to Me" through an e-mail blast, although most of the program's marketing will come from within Jane's pages and other demographically correct Web sites.

Dillon said Jane has not set a goal for registered registry users this first time out. "I'm almost nervous to say ... we have a very responsive audience. But in this case, they're registering, not getting something for free."

If successful, however, Dillon said the plan is to launch Jane's gift registry service as a year-round retail promotion, targeting birthdays, graduations and such evergreen categories as relationship mending.

In any case, she said, "Give It to Me" will maintain Jane's attitude. "We really wanted the gift guide and all of the language in it to have the same sort of tone and irreverence to it [as the magazine]."

That includes this "Give It to Me" copy for Lancome: "French women eat whatever they want and still look amazing. Many attribute it to that certain je ne sais quoi. Let's get real--they all use Lancome."