Below is our interview with Benjamin Christie, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Gourmet Ads.

AdNetworks.NET: Currently, Gourmet Ads serves advertisers in the Food vertical who are trying to target consumers in USA, UK, Canada  and Australia.  Any other key market segments I am forgetting?

BC: No, those are our key geographical markets, but from an audience segment perspective Gourmet Ads concentrates on reaching the grocery buyer online. We tend to see this demographic being 27 – 55 year old female who makes the majority of the grocery buying decisions in the household. From a targeting perspective we then separate this up to 3 different age demographic targets enabling advertiser to target them via the sites in the network.

AdNetworks.NET: What competitive advantages does your previous experience as an Executive Chef, TV Co-Host, and Cookbook Author provide you when servicing your clients?

BC: Having experience in the food industry from being behind the stove to presenting recipes in front of a camera has certainly provided a great deal of understanding of what the public likes when it comes to food. Additionally having worked in online media and owned my own website prior to developing Gourmet Ads gave me real insight into how companies can use online to develop brand awareness and generate sales.

AdNetworks.NET: Without giving away your secrets, what makes for a successful campaign for an advertiser in your vertical looking to launch an online advertising campaign?

BC: The first is being relevant to our audience. Obviously food and wine advertisers have increased success simply because they are food and wine products. But we do run a great deal of advertising for non food or wine products and once again the advertising itself needs to be relevant to our audience of female, 27-55 years old. Areas that do perform well include Automotive, Travel, Financial and Lifestyle based campaigns.

The second is creative. There is no doubt that great looking creative with key messaging and strong calls to action outperforms ordinary ads. We highly recommend that clients produce Flash ads compared to static and we work hard with advertisers to develop creative that works. When possible we ask that they provide 2 or 3 sets of ads, so we can determine the best performing ad unit and messaging for campaign success.

AdNetworks.NET: How does working with Adify enhance your ability to deliver quality results for your advertiser and publisher partners?

Adify have been a great partner from day one and working with them has definitely given us competitive edge because of their platform. Adify provides us a wide range of targeting features allowing us to hone in on a client’s target market. Additionally working with Adify provides us the ability to manage hundreds of publisher relationships, opposed to just being an ad server.

AdNetworks.NET: Again, without giving away too much, are you finding certain technologies or targeting features most effective for an advertiser’s campaigns in your vertical?

Because we are a global network, every campaign we run must have some sort of geo targeting. We have the ability to go down to the zip level right up to country or global level. This has allowed us to work with smaller clients such as regional supermarkets and grocery store clients who only want to reach small areas such as 3 or 4 DMA’s. A fair percentage of clients are also using some sort of cookie based targeting as part of their campaigns.

AdNetworks.NET: Should small advertisers check out Gourmet Ads or do you primarily work with advertisers with a large ad spend?

Yes, we work with both global companies undertaking brand advertising right down to small family owned ecommerce sites requiring a direct response focus. Because of our geo targeting capabilites, we can restrict a advertising campaign to display locally in just a Zip Code, thus not wasting impressions in areas that are not relevant.

AdNetworks.NET: How do you define “quality content” when selecting publishers for your network?

The key is that unlike the majority of other ad networks, we simply don’t allow just any website to join and start running ad tags straight away. Every site we include in the Gourmet Ads network must adhere to our strict guidelines which are openly published on www.gourmetads.com . By rejecting unsuitable sites from the network means that we provide advertisers an environment which is brand safe and transparent.

For inclusion in the network, we look for a well designed website with uniquely developed content and a solid audience. We also work with sites to ensure they have ad units above the fold, thus making sites as attractive as we can for advertisers.

AdNetworks.NET: Ad exchanges have received significant media attention over the past 6 months.What are your thoughts on ad exchanges? Do you feel that comparing a premium, brand network to an ad exchange’s “remnant inventory” is “apples and oranges”?

We don’t use ad exchanges, because our clients require 100% transparency on which sites where their ads will run. Additionally because we have strict editorially criteria for sites to be included in the network we prefer not to run our ads on sites we don’t “know”.

AdNetworks.NET: Why should someone who hasn’t tried out a vertical network take a look?

BC: Particularly for food and wine advertisers, vertical ad networks such as Gourmet Ads provides advertisers the ability to buy and target advertising on multiple sites in one transaction, eliminating buying on a site-by-site basis. Because we specialise in food and wine, we know what works for advertisers and what doesn’t.

AdNetworks.NET: How has the ad network community developed since you got involved and where do you see it heading?

Since we started a few years back, the ad network community has certainly exploded which has increased the competition in the market place. Heading towards the future, I feel that there needs to be a little consolidation and I believe that as the economy returns, we’ll see acquisitions from not only other ad networks, but I believe they we’ll see media companies starting to buy into ad networks allowing them to increase their reach and viability in the long term.

AdNetworks.NET: Any exciting announcements/plans for the New Year?

As we roll into 2010, we’ve got lots on. The year starts with an advertising agency road show across London as we prepare to expand out UK network. Not only are we expanding the UK, but we’re recruiting more sites into the network enabling greater reach for clients, particularly in the US and Canada.

Throughout 2009 we’ve experienced a great deal of enquiry for beyond the banner placements, and we’re currently developing higher impact units for clients. Our team is working on about 4-5 different placements which can be deployed across hundreds of sites quickly and cost efficiently to provide greater ROI for advertising clients.

The full interview can be found at www.adnetworks.net

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

Last week I was going through some Comscore information about sites within our network and was surprised to see a large amount of automotive indexes associated with our food sites. There a number of reasons why we see these automotive indexes appearing, particularly because the main grocery buyer actually drives to grocery store.

However, to explain these better, I thought I’d reach out to Luke Manion who runs the automotive ad network AdTorque for his thoughts and comment on why the Gourmet Ads Network reports high indexes for automotive advertising.  ”It has long been a myth in the automotive  industry that men make the majority of purchasing decisions. Recently Business Week said that the women’s decision-making authority has grown in part because more households are headed by women — 27% at last count, a fourfold increase since 1950. Their buying power has grown, too. In the past three decades, men’s median income has barely budged — up just 0.6% — while women’s has soared 63%.  Automotive advertisers are desperately wanting to tap this valuable female market which makes GourmetAds such an attractive proposition.”

Therefore, any automotive products aimed at women will find our food vertical an ideal platform to talk with potential female buyers, however these areas make particular sense;

• New Cars (Small, Luxury, Mid Sized, Van and SUV) 
• Navigational products ( GPS ) 
• Service ( tyres, tune up ) 
• Roadside Assistance

So going back to the Comscore indexes, here are some of the automotive indexes which I found of interest, particularly to automotive advertisers; 

• 200 Index for audience very likely to purchase a new or used vehicle within the next 6 months 
• 803 Index for buying a car with lease online in the last 6 months 
• 358 Index for buying auto parts and supplies online in the last 6 months 
• 287 Index for buying automotive loan online in the past 6 months 
• 643 Index for having bought a used car online within the last 6 months
• 1950 Index for plan to buy in the next 6 months a Large luxury vehicle 
• 247 Index for plan to buy in the next 6 months a Midsize sedan/coupe  
• 212 Index for plan to buy in the next 6 months a Full-size sports utility (SUV)  
• 201 Index for plan to buy in the next 6 months a Full-size van  

So if you’re in the automotive industry and looking to reach into new channel to drive sales, then request a proposal from Gourmet Ads. We’ll help develop a digital media plan that will deliver your advertising directly to relevant consumers.

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

As the Gourmet Ads network begins to mature we’re keen to delve deeper into verticals which advertisers are interested in reaching. One of these areas is our Moms vertical.

Moms play a critical role in what families eat and nearly every major food company wants to reach moms because typically they are the main grocery buyer in households. They are usually the sole decision maker when it comes to actually what products they will buy. They also have control over the healthy lifestyle of the family.

With this in mind, we’re seeking more mom related sites to join the network, particularly those that have a food focus of sorts. It could be a blog about what food goes into lunch boxes or what is cooked for dinner each night. We find sites like these attract an audience of moms, which is what advertisers are seeking from us.

If you’ve got a blog or website which is highly focused on mom and food related topics or has a strong audience of moms we’d like you to apply to join the Gourmet Ads network.

Click here to join Gourmet Ads as a publisher

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

Recent upgrades to our ad serving platform have allowed advertisers greater flexibility to deliver TVCs online to your target audience. From a cost perspective online is far greater than online, so for every $ you spend online you get a wider reaching media buy compared to broadcast or cable TV.

The first option is to deliver your TVCs in a typical 300×250 ad unit. The 300×250 is one of the most used sizes on the internet. The TVC advertisement can be setup to run upon load for the first play or purely on an engagement basis. Either way this is a great option for reaching your target audience with video based creative.

The second option is to run your TVCs either pre roll or mid roll. This is where we play your TVCs on video sites within our network. The TVC will either play before or during the main video the viewer is watching. To encourage click throughs, we also serve concurrently a companion ad which along side the video player.

One of the key features about running TVCs online is that you can not only play the video but you can have a call to action, click throughs or lead generation after the video finishes. It means that you control the entire conversation from start to finish, unlike on TV which goes to the next commercial.

If you’ve got TVCs that you’re currently running on TV but would like to run online, download our media kit or request a proposal from Gourmet Ads.

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

Additionally, vertical ad networks were found to be effective at reaching Internet users with “significantly higher than average engagement” in their preferred content category (e.g., gaming, entertainment, and health), with consumers spending at least 60 percent more time interacting with that category than the average site visitor.

What’s responsible for this increased reach and engagement? The vertical network space owes its newfound fame in part to new partnerships and new technologies that secure new users and improve business operations.

In January, MTV Networks (MTVN) introduced a comedy-themed Tribe, its term for its collection of vertical networks. The new Tribe includes sites like Comedy Central, JibJab, and Fark.com. This month, automotive research site AutoTrader.com launched a vertical network called AutoTrader.com Access that’s intended to reach in-market car buyers on related category sites.

Also assisting vertical networks in keeping their growth momentum going strong is the wide release of Google subsidiary DoubleClick’s Network Builder. The tool is designed for building and managing ad networks. In addition to integrating core DoubleClick products, like DART for Publishers (DFP), it provides a partner portal where site partners can directly access their sites’ performance and reporting data. Plus it simplifies financial reporting and partner payouts.

Vertical networks are in no small part affected by the news that vertical ad network platform Adify Corp. — which many vertical networks, including AutoTrader Access, employ — has launched a product that’s meant to simplify cross-network buys for agencies and advertisers. The new Adify Media service consolidates the over 150 vertical networks using the Adify Network Builder platform to create private marketplaces for advertisers and a customized and specialized media buy.

Whereas vertical networks for such content categories as travel, technology, beauty and environmentally conscious living already exist, there’s still space for newcomers if they pick a popular genre. One to watch is Gourmet Ads, another Adify partner that launched in July 2008. The gourmet food, wine, and beer network was created by Benjamin Christie, an Australian celebrity chef who also has his own popular food site and blog (look for him on Twitter at @gourmetads, too). The network started targeting U.S. sites in January and is up to 33 million monthly American page views and 42 million page views globally. Gourmet Ads will launch additional BBQ and coffee verticals to further entice advertisers searching for food-loving home cooks and wine drinkers who purchase quality cookware and appliances, drink wine with dinner, and visit wineries several times each year.

Established vertical networks are, of course, doing their part to boost reach and readership. Top women’s network Glam Media launched Glam Family last year and has since added womensforum.com. Tech-themed network NetShelter Technology Media, now with 90 million unique monthly visitors worldwide, ranked fourth last year among the fastest growing sites. Its growth can be attributed to efforts like Top Tech Gifts and Last Gadget Standing, two microsites the network built to leverage the expertise of editors from numerous sites within the NetShelter network.

Despite talk of the network space being too oversaturated to support such content-specific advertising businesses, vertical ad networks continue to demonstrate their value by exhibiting their massive reach. Keep an eye on the big ones and watch for new offerings to emerge in the year to come.

Source : www.clickz.com/3633578

By Tessa Wegert, ClickZ, Apr 30, 2009

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

The combined reach of the ad network will approach 90 million uniques, approximately 17 million of which will be attributable to Cox’s own sites, according to ComScore.

Adify Media prides itself on its dedication to transparency for both buyer and seller. None of its inventory is offered on a blind basis, and its network partners — whom it calls network builders — are free to opt out of individual campaigns or the network as a whole. When its six regional ad sellers are dealing with a client, Adify does not mention the names of individual networks using its platform, so as to avoid channel conflict, focusing instead on the properties themselves.

For advertisers, Adify emphasizes highly customized ad packages and site-by-site deliverability reporting. Its reporting data can be viewed by ad space, line item, creative execution or ad size.

“I don’t think there’s another aggregator that offers anywhere near that level of pipeline visibility, handholding consulting, and the ability to opt in or out at granular levels,” said Joelle Gropper Kauffman, Adify’s SVP of marketing and corporate partnerships. “For us it’s all about people staying in control of their assets and their inventory.”

Adify Media is offering a degree of creative variation in its menu of ad formats. According to Gropper Kauffman, Adify is the primary ad server for many sites offered by its media team. Therefore, she noted, “we can do things you just don’t do with a network.” For instance, she said available formats could include expandable ads, sponsorships, roadblocks, and interstitial video. Standard targeting options will include geographic, behavioral, and browser-based delivery.

Key to Adify Media’s pitch is the supposition that mid-tail publishers of the sort that define its network have more engaged audiences than do major portals and ad networks. Its 160 network partners cover topic areas such as politics (Politico Network), lifestyle (Martha’s Circle), and food (Gourmet Ads).

Adify employs sales reps in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Its team, led by general manager Rodney Mayers, has already sold campaigns to Best Western Hotels, Febreze, HP, and Microsoft, among others.

Source ; www.clickz.com/3633568
By Zachary Rodgers, ClickZ, Apr 28, 2009

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

“comScore research indicates that vertical ad networks are a growing phenomenon in the online advertising space, in part because of their ability to deliver engaged, targeted audiences,” said Lesle Litton, VP, Media at comScore. “As more vertical ad networks prove their ability to effectively reach specific target audiences by aggregating mid-tail publisher sites, the industry will likely give greater consideration to these emerging ad delivery channels.”

Probably the biggest key finding the study for us was the confirmation that vertical ad networks were effective in reaching people with significantly higher than average engagement in their respective content categories. We’ve seen this internally through campaign metrics and reports, that when advertising campaigns are closely aligned with the content of the Gourmet Ads network the engagement rates are far higher than when not closely related.

One reason for continued engagement rates is that we editorially select sites for quality content and work closely with our partner sites in terms of above the fold, providing the ultimate environment to run an advertising campaign. Gourmet Ads continues to build our unique audience, which is largely duplicated  and from this week’s release by comScore we’re on the right track.

If you’d like to learn more about Gourmet Ads, download a copy of our media kit or request a proposal for your next campaign.

To read the full release by comScore visit www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2790

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

So you’ve spent time and budget on developing your winery website. Your winery site has all the bells and whistles from the latest ecommerce system through to inventory management and point of sales software integration. There is also a wide range of delivery methods, as well as all the wines which are for sale, including the latest vintage as well as the reserve vintage. Your winery site has it all. So what’s the next step?

For many wineries, one of the most important steps is often forgotten about when developing a winery website. The advertising plan. The advertising plan is about how you plan to reach your target consumers and drive wine sales on the site. Your winery advertising plan should include information on;

1. Target Market
2. Location of ideal customer
3. Advertising Message
4. Launch Promotion
5. Budget

Driving new customers to your site is what it’s about and having an online advertising campaign is the logical medium to start with, given that you are promoting your website. The aim should be to advertise where possible consumers are engaging online, which is why advertising in a vertical advertising network such as Gourmet Ads is ideal.

Gourmet Ads has the ability to run online advertising locally, nationally or internationally depending on the target you wish to reach. Apart from reaching wine consumers and wine connoisseurs we can reach also reach food communities as well through our food vertical. If you’d like for Gourmet Ads to develop an advertising plan for your winery, request a proposal from us and we’ll help you drive sales online.

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

Some of the new features in Adify 4.0 include;

• Post-Impression Tracking – Track conversions after an impression, in the absence of a click.
• Interaction Tracking – Track user engagement with a rich media creative.
• Enhanced Charts – more detailed charts with mouse-over detail.
• Significant user interface enhancements

Apart from these platform changes Adify also announced they continue to comply with the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Ad Measurement Guidelines. This provides advertisers complete confidence that impressions are measured with accuracy to the guidelines set by the IAB.

If you are interested on how Gourmet Ads can provide any these value added features in your next online advertising campaign, please contact us or request a proposal from us.

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed

Some advertising networks will unscrupulously sell their network blind to media buyers and media planners. “Blind” meaning that even the advertising sales team aren’t even exactly sure about where the advertising will end up. What generally happens is that after the campaign has been push lived that they discover their advertising is running on unsuitable sites.

Unlike these unscrupulous advertising networks, Gourmet Ads isn’t a blind media buy. We’re actually very proud of the premium websites and blog which we work with as most have dedicated audiences and produce great content all the time. Our close relationship with our publishers even allows us to even on occasions do more integrated advertising solutions for advertising clients.

Apart from disclosing all the website publishers and bloggers we work with, we actually allow advertisers and advertising agencies if requested to choose right down to the ad unit. So if they don’t want to run a particular ad unit, that’s fine. By providing a site list and allowing choice right down to the ad unit, it allows advertisers to undertake a really optimized media buy.

So if you are unsure where your existing advertising campaigns are running and don’t trust the network youre working with, then contact Gourmet Ads and choose where your ads are running.

Gourmet Ads is a Vertical Advertising Network specialising in Food Advertising, Wine Advertising and Beer Advertising on the Adify Platform. We also provide Advertising Agencies both Media Planning and digital strategy, look out for new site Grocery Coupons. Follow us on Twitter or on Friend Feed