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The cliched idea of what men really want to read or, indeed look at, in magazines is something we are all familiar with. But NatMag's Esquire reckons it has pulled off something new with the culmination of one of its major advertising deals.

While the material involved technically falls in the same category as the well-trodden theme mens' mags fall into, this campaign - as well as claiming to be more upmarket - involves editorial content for a client with a difference - the Provocative Woman fragrance from Elizabeth Arden.

The magazine claims it is the first time a female cosmetics company has backed editorial in a men's magazine, particularly in such volume.

Built around a competition to find the UK's "most provocative" woman, Elizabeth Arden has sponsored a six-month blitz of advertorials, which culminates in April, well out of the usual "gift buying" season. But, is it really treading new ground?

Core advertising

Esquire's claims have certainly invited a response from rival GQ, which says it was invited to pitch for the brief, but turned it down on the grounds the campaign risked becoming a glorified version of "readers' wives".

"How cheap," was the exact response from editor Dylan Jones.

"The suggestion that there is something novel about women's fragrances using men's magazines to promote their products is just not true," adds Jamie Bill, GQ's publishing director. He suggests Esquire may be more keen to take revenue from such content because of its falling ABC results (the title was down 23.6% year on year according to the July to December figures). GQ was up 1% year on year.

Bill says women's products have long been advertised in men's magazines, pointing to campaigns, across several different titles by Prada for its women's fragrance.

But, he says, the focus remains on core advertising. Most Esquire readers will not get beyond the photographs, he thinks, with little brand awareness as a result.

Claire McLaughlin, Elizabeth Arden's brand manager at Manning Gottlieb OMD, disagrees.

"I think advertisers have been missing a trick," she says. "It became obvious that we were missing out on a key audience. Yes, you've got to be very tactical and it works at times like Valentine's Day and Christmas, which is why we started this campaign when we did."

She adds: "But women's magazines are so saturated, it's hard for brands to achieve stand-out. We wanted to give men, who often make last-minute purchases, a product they could buy which wouldn't be the bog-standard Chanel No 5."

Elizabeth Arden is by no means the first advertiser to look "outside the box". Women's mags have for a long time carried display ads for men's fragrances, although it represents a small proportion of spend.

And despite the propensity of women who shop for their men's clothes, fashion labels seem reluctant to try this route.

Sexy stuff

A campaign for D&G's autumn/ winter women's range recently ran through several men's magazines. Back on a raunchier front, lingerie brand Agent Provocateur has achieved much of its notoriety by developing a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" relationship with several men's publishers, with free photo shoots of its models a regular thing.

Esquire, while it might be suffering in the circulation stakes, at least is still regarded as having an "intellectual" authority and NatMags' luxury group promotions director, Helen Brocklebank, claims that the volume of "cross-gender" advertising has been tiny to date, leaving an untapped market. "I think what Elizabeth Arden has done does deserve enormous credit. It sends a real signal to other advertisers. Media agencies are always presenting to us saying the invasion model doesn't work anymore, we need something different. Well, this is all about engagement and content."

Jerome O'Regan, head of buying at BLM-owned Red Media, whose clients include Paul Smith and Diesel, says the idea is misguided. "It's certainly progressive, but I don't think it's a very lucrative move. The men's and women's sectors are so polarised and, whereas the women's market is burgeoning, the men's market is static. There is still plenty of steam in women's mags and I think a client would have to spend an awful lot of money in it before it ran out of options in the women's sector and had to think about the men's."

Esquire admits the one thing it has not done in its Elizabeth Arden project is plan research to prove how effective the content is. Perhaps that is the way forward if there really is a new opportunity for media to exploit.