IQ News: Engage Launches B-to-B Ad Network

Engage, a profiling and marketing solutions company, today announced the launch of a new division, Engage Business Technologies, a business-to-business advertising network. The Andover, Mass.-based company also announced the acquisition of two major clients for its new division: New York-based Thomas Regional and Cambridge, Mass.-based Time0. "Our strategy is to pursue very finite areas in hopes of building vertical markets," said Joanne Currie, general manager of Engage Business Media. These "very finite" markets include areas such as agriculture and construction. Currie said the new division already has over 70 sites in its network. One of the best-known of these companies, Thomas Regional, is a directory of industrial suppliers with a database of 520,000 distributors. Time0, owned by one-time Presidential hopeful Ross Perot, offers Net-wide searches for industrially-oriented content. Engage Business Media sells ads on the sites of the various companies belonging to its network. The advertisers supply their own ads and the sites carrying the ads put code on their sites to make it possible for Engage to serve the ads. Commenting on the "real world" aspects of Business Media's network sites, Currie said, "There was a delay in some of our agriculture-oriented sites getting their tags up so we could serve the ads. When we asked what the problem was, they said, 'It's crop-planting time! Come back when it rains!' " Currie said her company plans to develop vertical markets in the areas of agriculture, automotive, building and construction, chemical, food, healthcare, hospitality, information technology, legal, printing and communications. "Previously, there were only two ways to advertise in those fields: in trade publications or at trade shows. A typical full-page ad in a trade magazine costs about $9,000 and yields about three leads. We are charging around $10 per click, e.g. per lead. This represents a tremendous savings." Chicago-based B2BWorks, established a year ago, is one of the company's major competitors. According to Currie, B2BWorks built its base horizontally but not vertically. "I based my business plan on what they did wrong," Currie said. B2BWorks doesn't see it that way, stating that it has over 300 business-to-business sites in its advertising network, making for an effective advertising base. "We have partners that are the Web sites of many trade publications where people already go for their business-to-business information. Examples are Advanstar, a publisher of about 75 business Web sites, or Phillips Business Information, which has a group of targeted industry Web sites," said Bill Giacalone, cofounder of B2BWorks. "Office Max and Business.com are also part of our network," Giacalone said. "We are not only selling advertising but working with ASPs to bring different tools to the Web site to make it stickier."

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IQ News: Engage Launches B-to-B Ad Network

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