When Best Health magazine was looking for a title sponsorship for its ambitious new Best Health Challenge program, it turned to long-time advertiser, skin care brand Vichy. 

‘Vichy has actually been with us since we launched Best Health magazine two years ago, so that was nice to be able to go to somebody who has been a huge supporter of the magazine since it launched,’ Best Health associate publisher Michelle Kellner tells MiC. ‘Their tagline, which is ‘Health is beautiful,’ shares a similar belief to Best Health, that whole balanced approach to health and well-being.’

An extended program aimed at women 25-to-55, the Vichy Best Health Challenge will extend through early 2011.

Entrants can register for the challenge online by the May 15 deadline at BestHealthMag.ca, where they’re asked to submit their story about why they want a total lifestyle makeover. Entrants will receive a weekly newsletter that includes health tips, advice, exclusive recipes and downloadable journals and tools to help them improve their lives.

The grand prize is $5,000 worth of consultations from a fitness trainer, a dietician, a life coach and a makeover and advice from a beauty expert. The winner will also be featured in four issues of the magazine, which is published seven times yearly.

In addition, all who sign up are eligible to purchase a $150-value Vichy Best Health Challenge kit for $50, with $20 going to support women who have been affected by cancer.

‘The Vichy Best Health Challenge came out of an idea between editorial and advertising,’ says Kellner. ‘We wanted to thank our readers for supporting the magazine and present women with an opportunity to empower and inspire them. It’s really about connecting them further with the Best Health brand, which is about living a balanced life, and helping them to do that through this program. But we couldn’t put it through without the support of an advertiser.’

Kellner says the promotion of the challenge includes ‘a very traditional print campaign of full page ads and online involvement,’ as well as the editorial component.

Best Health will also leverage other Reader’s Digest Canada properties as well as Sympatico.ca, which features BestHealth.ca as the health and fitness channel.

Kat Tancock, Reader’s Digest Canada‘s senior web editor, says the challenge will be interactive and involve social media outreach in the brand’s Facebook and Twitter communities.

‘What we love about Best Health being a multi-platform brand is interaction,’ says Tancock. ‘So we wanted to make the best of Web 2.0 and create a program that really resonates with readers and lets participants react with each other and with us, rather than just reading straight, pushed editorial content.’

Tancock says Best Health‘s 20,000 Twitter followers and an engaged 700-member-strong Facebook audience will be actively recruited, and hopes that the numbers for both social media platforms will increase substantially once the contest reaches its apex.

ZenithOptimedia in Montreal executed the Vichy media buy with consultation from Best Health, says Kellner, but all the creative for the campaign is being handled by the magazine.

Kellner says there may be other opportunities for sponsors and advertisers interested in prizing.