BoA's U.S. Trust takes the plunge with New York Times Magazine "cover wrap". Bank of America's wealth-management arm U.S. Trust achieved a marketing first this past weekend when the New York Times Magazine ran a "cover-wrap" ad touting the firm's philanthropic services to wealth individuals and families.

"We are thrilled to work with the New York Times Magazine on this effort as we seek to further raise awareness of our industry-leading expertise and capabilities in helping clients integrate philanthropy into their broader wealth-management objectives," says Claire Huang, head of marketing for Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America's wealth- and investment management division.

The ad in question overlaps a bit less than a third of the weekend supplement's front cover and about half of its back cover.

Here's what the ad looks like.

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The New York Times Company (NYT Co.), publisher of the magazine, is "delighted that U.S. Trust chose to use this first-time, innovative New York Times Magazine advertising unit to promote its philanthropic management capabilities," according to its chief advertising officer Denise Warren. "This ad buy illustrates how we continue to work closely with our clients to create unique executions and customized opportunities to meet their business objectives."

The NYT Co. won't say how much it charged Bank of America for the ad. A four-color, one-page ad in the New York Times Magazine can cost as much as $107,075, according to its rate card. Special inserts can cost anywhere between $1.3 million and $135,000.

The magazine, which part of the Sunday edition of the New York Times newspaper, claimed a circulation of 1.6 million copies a week at the end of September 2006.

But newspapers have fallen on hard times, as cash-strapped advertisers trim budgets and readers switch to online alternatives. Last year the U.S. newspaper industry saw an 8% decline in ad sales. By Late June 2008, sales for the year to date were down another 12%.

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The NYT Co., which saw a 11.9% drop in ad sales  and a 6.6% decline in overall revenue in May 2008, has rolled out a number of new ad formats over the past year and a half including newspaper section-front ads, spadias -- cover wraps for newspaper sections -- and single-sponsored magazines. -FWR

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