Q&A: iVillage's Jodi Kahn

IVillage, an NBC Universal-owned site that aims to connect women on topics like health, wellness, fitness and pregnancy, has relaunched several of its most popular digital channels, undergone a logo change and is introducing new interactive features this spring.The effort is part of iVillage's strategy to become the premier, online information resource for women. Jodi Kahn, evp of iVillage Network and a former Time Inc. vet, said the makeover, which began in 2008, is on a steady "growth trajectory" and everyone is taking notice. Click-through rates and overall unique impressions are soaring, and iVillage is attracting plenty of new advertisers, Kahn said.Kahn, who started her career as a media planner at Wunderman, spoke with Brandweek about these changes and what advertisers can expect to see from iVillage in the next few months.Brandweek: In September 2009, iVillage kicked off a massive, site relaunch. What prompted that and how's that project progressing?Jodi Kahn: In November 2008, we conducted an exhaustive research on the women's space, and realized that iVillage is a tremendous asset in this space and especially among larger, content-driven communities. And when we looked at that research, there were three things that informed us about this space: One, it is a female-driven economy, women are living [busy] lives, and they touch [a minimum of] five devices a day. We thought there was a unique opportunity and it was the right time to invest in this space. The company was really excited about the plan to reengineer the site and the design, but overall, to revive the brand and really capitalize on something that has tremendous equity for both [advertisers] and consumers.What are some of the channels you've relaunched to date and what results have you seen thus far?We relaunched Entertainment in September, Food in November and Astrology in December. Overall traffic on our site has grown north of 100 percent from May through January, according to comScore. For Entertainment, our unique visits were up over 65 percent, and on Food, it's up over 140 percent. Our home page unique visits are up 170 percent, and the exciting thing is, we've seen engagement increase but also our click-through rate [rise] for advertisers as a result of the new design and content. Click through on Entertainment was up 116 percent and on "Food," it was over 87 percent.IVillage recently relaunched the Health portion of its site. What's changed about it and what insights/focus group findings brought about some of these changes?Last year, we went to four cities to see what women were looking for, what their needs and unmet needs were, and we found that ... in health specifically, the driver of the experience -- what women are looking for -- is information that is quick and simple. Most women are not interested in looking at medical definitions or a medical journal definition. They want to understand what it is and to connect to other people's stories, to be assured that they -- or a family member -- are not the only ones suffering through something.The key insight: women are at the center of a very large care circle. It's not just their daughter or their mother, but also their neighbor and friend, so that we're all caring for a lot of people in our universe, and we're entering in [and searching for] information that relates to that. We are very much designing the site with those key things in mind. We know that when women go online -- due to the vast amount of information out there -- they need to understand why they're on some site and the content has to be clean, fresh and up-to-date.And, some of the newer features?We have something like 120 [health tools] that will be available to a [visitor on the site], such as a body mass index (BMI) calculator, a weight tracker tool and an allergy tool. The key thing is, the site will evolve and [there will be collaboration among the different channels of the site], from Parenting and Pregnancy to Food to even Beauty. It's a holistic approach to serving women and we see value in it as women are serving multiple roles in their lives. They've got a very dimensionalized life. We understand that if you are on the Food portion of our site, you may want information on health.One of the key tools we are introducing -- and this is in version one -- is a care circle where women can personalize [health] information for up to eight people. You enter that information onto the site and we offer health [tracking] tools you can utilize, and, in the next couple of months, we will relaunch an interactive medical dashboard kind of feature, where you can plug in information on anyone you want to [keep track of], so you have one unified [health] calendar.Any other interesting features iVillage's launched lately?In Food, we are introducing the concept of "twist." When you change a recipe, everyone wants to know what it's like and within six weeks, we had 5,000 twists. That's a lot. That's not even counting the number of people looking at recipes, and there are tens of thousands of consumers doing that.Are advertisers -- new and existing -- taking notice?The advertisers that have seen the redesign like the environment and contemporary feel of the site. They like how we're infusing the community experience with content and they're very interested in content that's going viral. We've also developed much more prominent and innovate ways to bring their message [to consumers]. Advertisers are coming back and spending more money with us. We are up year over year. We had more advertisers in Q1 of this year versus [the same period] last year. That shows real [growth] trajectory.Give us an example of one type of campaign you've run recently with a major advertiser.We are launching a program with Bumble Bee Foods. It's an online and offline program that's so perfectly well suited with their target consumer. They want to tap into our active community and help women activate around getting healthy. We're launching a program with them that's [essentially] a community challenge. [It's a call] to get women to sign up to participate in a challenge together for four, five or six weeks. It could be something like losing weight by walking for 20 minutes, or, when you go shopping, to park the car and share with us what you're doing. It's a program to encourage women to be aware [of health] and walk more. Bumble Bee is [also promoting it with leaflets on] 10 million cans. In early April, Bumble Bee will be promoting this challenge each day with messages focusing on eating better, exercising and sleeping more, so [it's advertising on the site in ways] that connect with the Bumble Bee community.What's your goal for iVillage?We are on this growth trajectory and for us, it's really to be the leading women's digital brand -- for consumers and advertisers and partners. That is, if you are going to reach women, you really need to turn to iVillage. We want them to understand we're a leader in this space and to get the brand out there more.What's coming up next? What are some site enhancements and changes we'll see in the near future?We'll be relaunching our Pregnancy and Parenting and Beauty and Style channels [in April and May, respectively]. We'll be launching a challenge with a really interesting partner. And you'll see us do more offline and online marketing to be where women today are, [especially] around key events like Mother's Day, back to school and Halloween.What's driving all this growth and emphasis on marketing to women?Women control 85 percent of the purchasing decisions in their homes. Seventy percent of women are working. Fifty percent of them are [working] outside of the home. Half of them also make more than half of their family's household income. Women are driving growth in our economy, and this will also propel growth online. They are living their lives online, and that's a very wide definition. But mobile will be key. Everything we do will be extended to [and integrated] with mobile apps, so we can be right there with them to serve their needs.

Performance Marketing

Q&A: iVillage's Jodi Kahn

Elaine Wong

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Elaine Wong