New York — In a novel type of collaboration with a publisher, on Thursday, the Internet company AOL Inc. has inked an ‘ad-sales alliance’ with Bonnier’s Parenting Group to help sell reserved ad inventory on Parenting.com, the digital home of Parenting magazine. As for AOL, the partnership means Bonnier’s family-centric editorial content from Parenting.com will be shared with AOL.com, HufPo Parents and the AOL Family channel.
The move for endorsing the new publisher partnership model for AOL is aimed at luring online advertisers looking to reach moms a lucrative customer base online through Parenting.com, the digital home of Parenting magazine. The two companies have agreed to share revenue from combined campaigns.
“Moms are a very essential component of the AOL community, and the Parenting.com brand delivers a wealth of credibility, authority and expertise on the issues that matter most to today’s modern families,” said Ned Brody, Chief Revenue Officer at AOL.
The association is meant to significantly grow Parenting.com’s audience in terms of the added reach by advertisers to parents, particularly to moms inclined to shop online or find digital content, coupons, or other deals worth pursuing. Besides, links to Parenting.com articles will be promoted on the AOL home page, Huffington Post Parents and the AOL Family channel, reaching a combined audience of over 12.5 million users according to comScore data.
Conversely, AOL will gain valuable web traffic to Parenting.com as the partners have apparently found a true win-win working relationship in this digital effort. The Parenting Group also will collaborate with AOL to package digital ad programs that incorporate media assets from both brands.
Forging alliance with AOL empowers The Parenting Group to significantly expand our digital footprint, providing our clients more efficiently by creating the scale and context we need to reach a much larger audience, said Mark Wildman, VP/Group Publisher, The Parenting Group.
New York-based AOL has been working to transform its business around by increasing its advertising revenue, as demand for its old dial-up Internet access service has faded. While AOL already helps publishers sell unsold inventory through its own ad network, this deal is unique because AOL’s sales team will get the opportunity to sell another publisher’s premium, reserved ad inventory, said Brody.
Bonnier, meanwhile, will get access to AOL’s vast digital advertising properties, allowing both companies to expand ads that are targeted toward moms. Widlman explained, “This alliance gives us the opportunity to tap into a completely new segment of advertisers targeting moms online, while working with a best-in-class partner to grow our brand and the types of digital programs that we can offer to our marketing partners.”
A big part of the enhancement has been AOL’s efforts to add popular content to its sites, to win more visitors and bolster its appeal to advertisers. It bought The Huffington Post news website last year and the technology blog TechCrunch in 2010. Besides, the deal indicates a continued focus on the female demographic, one of the three pillars of Tim Armstrong’s content strategy, along with local and influencer’s. Parenting.com’s readership is more than 80% female.
“I think every advertiser wishes to reach as much of a target market as it can with a single purchase,” Brody said. “By taking their inventory and our inventory, we have the scale to get to as many parents as possible in a single buy.”
Apart from Parenting, Bonnier’s magazine brands include, Field & Stream, Popular Science, Ski and Saveur. Besides, Parenting.com, AOL Family and HuffPost Parents sites reached a combined 12.5 million unique visitors in November 2011.