Vertical Ad Networks In India: GooseFish To Launch DivaNation, Sindbad, Others; Ishir-Tonic Tag

Update (2nd July): Goosefish appears to have dropped the idea of more ad networks, reports Afaqs.

Update (27 June): As per reliable sources, GooseFish is also considering other ad networks – one on Business (targeting ET, Mint, India Infoline, MoneyControl etc), Tech (targeting Tech2.0, Techtree, Alootechie etc), CXO (Premium ad network) and Bollywood (IndiaFM, Bombay Bitch etc).

Original Story (27 June): Goosefish Media Ventures, a 100 percent owned subsidiary of digital agency WebChutney, is planning to launch a couple of vertical advertising networks, Medianama has learned from sources. The network, called DivaNation, claims to be India’s first Womens Media Network, and is currently seeking partners for a network of “Indian Women on the Web”.

View the email sent out by DivaNation to prospective publishing partners here.

The rationale behind this is fairly simple – women are the biggest target-group for advertisers, and will provide them with a focused channel for advertising. DivaNation is claiming that they have HLL, P&G, Nestle and consumer durable brands already on board. The advertisers are easy, but its difficult to get inventory. Goosefish has investments from Network18 company Capital18 (via WebChutney), and there appears to be synergy between the DivaNation and Web18s portal IndiWo. The idea of a Womens Ad Network isn’t a new one – in fact, there’s been a trend of publications morphing into advertising networks. GlamMedia is perhaps the largest and the most famous of them all. Other significant international ad networks targeting women include iVillage and BlogHerAds.

Goosefish is also launching a travel ad network called Sindbad, which is going to take up inventory on Travel portals like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Travelguru and the likes. We’ve heard that they’ve already got MakeMyTrip and Yatra on board as exclusive partners. Goosefish has a few sites as a part of its portfolio as well – including Alootechie (Indian Online Industry), Bombay Bitch

Another vertical specific ad network launched recently is Tonic Tag from the agency Ishir Digital, which is focused on technology sites and blogs. I think that comprises of a fairly significant number of highly involved users. Good time to start a gadget blog?

For over a year now, people have been considering a Federated Media kind of an advertising network, comprising primarily of premium blogs. The most difficult task, however, has been identifying and convincing bloggers to come on board.

I’m wondering if the launch of Vertical ad networks will actually help grow the advertising market, or will it just cannibalize on inventory from generic ad networks. Which other verticals do you think can support a niche ad network in India?

Update: Siddharth Puri has an interesting post here with details on how to evaluate an Ad Network.

Follow Up: Goosefish Media Ventures launches online ad networks

11 Comments

bhatnaturally July 9, 2008

I think vertical ad networks have a future. Currently, it will appeal to the advertiser who is looking for some semblance of simplicity in online advertising. Among the potentials, I see scope for verticals related to education.

Siddharth Puri June 30, 2008

The way these companies are launching vertical ad networks is much different from way they operate in US. In India these ad networks are getting access to media kits of all publishers putting them in single presentation and going to advertisers with % of added agency commission or publisher representation fees.

So yatra or MMT or even travelguru has claimed is not exclusive. Travelguru i spoke to personally and they are not even taking any ad on their site for now.

When deciding on vertical ad network we need to see will it be audience define or classification of publisher defined so CXO is audience related initiative and sinbad could be more content aligned verticalization both will have different strategy why as most of the travel advertisers will be compete for travel publishers so differentiation strategy will play important role in deciding what can work what cant work. In India where 80% demand is consumed even in vertical space by 20% publishers and lack of Tier-II sites in all verticals its very hard to go ahead and aggregate such verticals with site list greater than 10 sites in each.

Too early for verticalization these ad networks can survive as subsidy of an agency but would never get scale.

Amit June 30, 2008

With Goosefish launching 3-4 verticals itself, it looks as if the market is heading maybe towards horizontal verticals space. Inventory is easily available exclusively to anybody with a good enough demand pipeline and to talk of exclusivity for an ad-network just starting operations seems a little unreliable. That's where horizontals might cover the market with their extensive reach.
Also, way to go Nikhil - Good to read you again:-)Am sure excellent things are ahead.
Cheers

abhishek June 30, 2008

its too early for vertical ad networks, as generic ad networks are yet to gain strong foothold !

not sure how these networks are going to survive 3 yrs down the line....

another bubble , waiting to burst

Nikhil Pahwa June 28, 2008

hey....thanks, it's working now.
Cheers,
Nikhil

Reader June 28, 2008

Clicking on the links View the email sent out by DivaNation to prospective publishing partners here. displays the following message:

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Looks like the page you're looking for has been moved or had its name changed. Or maybe it's just fate.

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