Last month, after AOL's (NYSE: TWX) stealth work on an edgy women's lifestyle site, one of our readers pointed us to TheFrisky.com as a beta version of the site AOL was working on. Wrong Time Warner family. Maybe TBS, with syndication rights to shows like Sex And The City? No. Turns out TheFrisky, unveiled in mid-March and unlabeled save for the privacy policy, belongs to the New Products group of Time Warner sib Turner Broadcasting?producing buzz for itself amid the obscurity of its parentage.
For the moment, that's how Turner likes it. Although conceived by the New Products group as a one-off beta to coincide with the release of Sex And The City the movie, TheFrisky is enjoying the freedom of not being tied down to any of the properties in the Time Warner family. Kind of like online dating, TheFrisky (tagline: "a daily romp on the sexy side") is talking with other similarly focused sites, like Yahoo's Shine and StyleHive, about sharing its news, commentary and videos?but right now, it's all casual, nothing serious. I spoke with Guhan Selvaretnam, New Products' group lead, and Lea Ann Leming, the New Products group managing editor, about their plans for the site and sudden appearance of a number of new sites for women.
-- Sex and the single women's site: Taking inspiration from Sex And The City, which was produced by Time Warner siblings HBO and New Line Cinema, TheFrisky's connection to the movie is decidedly downplayed. The goal isn't to serve as an online vehicle for the film - or any Turner programming either, for that matter, said Selvaretnam. That said, Turner's popularity with women in general provided enough of an impetus for the company to create a standalone site. Selvaretnam: "We launched in beta in mid-March and it will remain in that state for a while. The underlying rationale, was actually a sales rationale initially, where we were looking at creating cross-platform, integrated sales opportunities. We found that many of Turner's on-air properties are number one in the 18-34 female demo. And TheFrisky represents our ability to deliver that demo to our marketers, especially given our dominance on air. That said, TheFrisky is not tied to any of the Turner brands. The online audience is pretty independent in terms of the sites they value, so we didn't see the need to tie it to any of Turner's existing properties." More after the jump.
-- Filling the gap: While there isn't exactly a dearth of women's websites, Leming felt that most lean a little too far in a single direction. Leming: "We did look closely in the marketplace and did see a gap for women. In terms of love and sex topics for women, you have generic content about dating and how to meet a man, and on the other end of the spectrum, you have content that is overtly sexy: essentially sites that are talking about 'how to do a man.' That wasn't representative of most women. They want something different and more subtle. Getting back to Sex And The City, it really changed the conversation on TV and we wanted to do the same online. And just as the show isn't just about sex, neither is TheFrisky. We also cover fashion, health, travel and news, along with a mix of recurring columns as you would find in a magazine."
-- Platform leap?: When I asked Selvaretnam and Lerning about the crowded landscape with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Shine and NBC's recently announced Women@NBCU, as well as Warner Bros. TV Group's MomLogic and current work on Essence magazine's revamped website, the two said that they are in talks with competitors about ways they can partner. But Selvaretnam said the site needs to develop greater scale first before it can embark on a serious relationship. Down the road, though, other possibilities remain, he said: "Does this potentially lend itself to a magazine or TV show spinoff? That's something we've discussed. But let me be clear, that's not Turner's position, nor is it Turner's intent. That said, there are good examples like [AOL's] TMZ, which started off as a site and has made the leap to TV. This site has sparked tremendous interest among our partners, who are themselves thinking about doing a joint venture into different mediums."
Although WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell coined the term "frenemy" to describe Google's (NSDQ: GOOG) relationship to the ad industry, to a lesser degree the the word was often applied to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) as well, as it too was viewed as encroaching on agency territory with every interactive marketing acquisition. It would seem that at least as far as Sir Martin is concerned, the issue of crossed boundaries on the part of Yahoo is a thing of the past as the two companies agreed to partner on the sale of display ads through Yahoo's Right Media exchange.
I spoke to Mike Walrath, SVP, Yahoo Advertiser Marketplace Group, about the deal (shameless plug: he'll be appearing at our EconAds Seminar on June 3rd). With WPP now on board, Walrath, the former CEO of Right Media, is now concentrating on signing up other ad-holding companies. "We're talking to everybody," especially all the major ad firms, Walrath said, though he declined to drop any names or offer a timeline as to when the next agreement might close. The most likely agency company to follow WPP is Publicis Groupe, which has been almost as aggressive as its UK rival in building up its digital capabilities through acquisitions and partnerships over the past year. More details from my conversation with Walrath after the jump.
-- The pitch: So what have Walrath and Yahoo been saying to convince agencies to join them? Agencies have realized that the ad exchanges, which offer auction-based, automatic targeting for ads across thousands of websites, still don't represent much of a threat to traditional media buying. The idea is that exchanges can extend the advertisers' reach on the web, supplementing the usual functions of media buying and promising greater efficiencies. "The real benefit here to WPP's clients is that they can be more precise in what they target and, obviously, create more return for marketers' ad spending."
-- Learning curve: Publishers may still be concerned that exchanges and ad networks treat ad space like a commodity, but advertisers don't seem to mind. "There is still a lot of confusion about ad exchanges and ad networks, mostly on the part of publishers, but really, it's akin to the differences between the New York Stock Exchange and Merrill Lynch. We're starting to see, and the partnership with WPP represents this, companies are embracing new ways of managing their digital ad spending. The only concerns advertisers have - which stem from publishers' wariness - is whether this will ever be a liquid enough market for this to be really beneficial, will it ever get to a large enough scale. But with 6 billion ad impressions a day being traded among 5,000 participants in the marketplace, I can say that we've reached that scale. And this is where the tipping point comes."
The Online Publishers Association's Forum For The Future in London on Thursday handed the task of engaging delegates after lunch to Geoff Ramsey, founder of digital research analyzer eMarketer. He did the job admirably - hit this 18-minute video for a lively and engaging quick-fire injection of this year's key new media metrics?
Every time things heat up at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), they seem to play the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) card. In the days before it went into failed negotiations with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), the company leaked word that an ad deal with Google would be announced soon, possibly the following week. That didn't happen once the deal collapsed. And now, with Yahoo totally back in play, here it comes again: News.com is corroborating a New York Post story from this morning, suggesting a deal is imminent and that an announcement is expected?wait for it?next week.
When Microsoft and Yahoo fell apart, the price gap was part of it, but Ballmer also saw the Google deal as an impediment to making it work. But then Ballmer also wanted to keep things friendly. With Icahn now in control, this type of maneuvering on Yahoo's will probably just steel his resolve that the board and top brass has to go.
In the News Today 
Last month, after AOL's (
paidContent:UK:
mocoNews:
contentSutra: