Vertical network targets foodies
September 3, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Australian advertisers are geared to more effectively target food, beer and wine enthusiasts following the launch of Australia’s first vertical advertising network for the fast moving consumer goods industry.
Vertical ad networks are a collection of websites that function as a one-stop-shop for purchasing and monitoring advertising across multiple sites.
While there has been a growing interest in niche culinary sites due to the TV celebrity chef phenomenon in recent years, Australian chef and creator of the Gourmet Ads network, Benjamin Christie, saw a need to respond to the problem of attracting advertising to long tail, niche publishers, including blogs, in the food and drink space by developing a network that would be a “win win” for advertisers, media buyers and publishers.
The Gourmet Ads network offers media buyers and advertisers the ability to purchase advertising across multiple sites and blogs in one transaction.
Lachlan Brahe, Sydney and Brisbane managing director at Emitch, said: “I’d like to think that Gourmet Ads will get some traction with FMCG advertisers by consolidating a large grocery buying audience into a single, simple media buy.”
Christie said the vertical network, powered by Adify, provides online publishers with a viable alternative to Google Adsense or Affiliate programs which he claims result in little revenue.
Gourmet Ads sells display ads on a CPM (cost per thousand) basis which Christie said offers publishers a better return than the cost per click structure used by Adsense.
Brahe said online advertising spend for FMCGs is low compared to other industry verticals. “Online media represents around 4% of the total advertising spend for FMCGs which is low considering the opportunity that digital media affords an advertiser to reach a main grocery buying audience,” he said.
Christie added: “Larger media companies don’t want to deal with smaller sites and blogs which generate 50,000 to 100,000 pages per month.”
Brahe believes the network, which currently represents two million Australian pages per month, will attract advertisers.
Celia Johnson
www.bandt.com.au
Chef serves up Food Ad Network
August 25, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
An Australian chef aims to link major brands in the food and beverage markets with specialist web sites that cater for culinary enthusiasts.
Benjamin Christie - one of the first people to make content available on the Joost peer-to-peer Internet TV network - has launched Gourmet Ads, a service to deliver targeted advertising to blogs and other web sites that deal with food, wine and beer.
Gourmet Ads is initially building a network in Australia, and intends to expand into the US during early 2009.
“Advertisers that work with Gourmet Ads can target consumers that value high quality food, beer and wine. This audience relies on long-tail culinary sites for recipes, ideas and other resources that satisfy their interests,” said Christie.
“Marketers need to reach them on the sites that they visit, while they are in the right frame of mind and are thinking about food.”
Gourmet Ads is powered by Adify, which already operates ad networks aimed at the travel, pet, arts and culture, technology, movie and entertainment, and home improvement markets, among others.
“Benjamin’s expertise as a television presenter, cookbook author and culinary educator has led to the creation of one of the most unique ad networks to date,” said Russ Fradin, president of Adify.
“Today, long-tail culinary sites are being sought due to the growing interest in cooking and food in general, which has not only hit the United States but other countries as well. With more individuals gravitating towards the kitchen table, an effective way of reaching them is through vertical ad networks that cater to the need of the culinarily engaged,” added Fradin.
Source : iTWire
Adify and Benjamin Christie Cook Up Food Vertical Ad Network
August 24, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Australian Chef Benjamin Christie today launched Gourmet Ads (www.gourmetads.com), the first Australian vertical advertising network focused on delivering major brand advertising to food, wine and beer enthusiasts. Gourmet Ads is powered by Adify (www.adify.com), the premier vertical ad network management company, to harness culinary enthusiasts and enable marketers to reach this engaged audience. The network encompasses food, wine, and beer blogs and Web sites in Australia, with plans for expansion to the United States early next year.
With a lack of options in Australia to monetize Web sites, Christie saw a need for a gourmet vertical ad network to help advertisers fight growing fragmentation and reach the long-tail food, beer and wine sites, while helping those sites generate revenue from brand advertising. A highly sought after audience for marketers, food enthusiasts are typically high-income females 27 to 45 years of age. With most Australian marketers still focusing on this audience through traditional print and television media, opportunities in the online space remain untapped. Adify’s ad serving technology coupled with Christie’s expertise and relationships with publishers helps marketers reach an audience that generates over three million page views per month for Gourmet Ads.
“The market in Australia is much different than that in the U.S. and brand marketers continuously gravitate to traditional media outlets, forgetting how successful the Internet can be in targeting highly engaged audiences such as food enthusiasts,” said Benjamin Christie of Gourmet Ads. “Advertisers that work with Gourmet Ads can target consumers that value high quality food, beer and wine. This audience relies on long-tail culinary sites for recipes, ideas and other resources that satisfy their interests. Marketers need to reach them on the sites that they visit, while they are in the right frame of mind and are thinking about food.”
Adify is providing the Gourmet Ads network with the key network management services required to execute successful advertising campaigns, including ad management, tracking, reporting, billing, payment and technical support functions. This infrastructure is capable of delivering content sponsorships, video, image and rich media advertising for its various network partners. Gourmet Ads editorial board hand-selects publishing partners for the ad network and is currently representing a cross section of popular Australian food blogs and recipe websites.
“Benjamin’s expertise as a television presenter, cookbook author and culinary educator has led to the creation of one of the most unique ad networks to date,” said Russ Fradin, president of Adify. “Today, long-tail culinary sites are being sought due to the growing interest in cooking and food in general, which has not only hit the United States but other countries as well. With more individuals gravitating towards the kitchen table, an effective way of reaching them is through vertical ad networks that cater to the need of the culinarily engaged.”
Source : Reuters
