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Sex And The Single Site: Turner’s TheFrisky Likes The Single Life, For Now

By David Kaplan - Fri 16 May 2008 12:32 PM PST

imageLast 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.

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Posted in: Advertising, Marketing, Companies, Time Warner, Turner, Social Media

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More On WPP-Yahoo Exchange Deal: Walrath: ‘We’ve Reached Scale’

By David Kaplan - Fri 16 May 2008 03:35 PM PST

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.

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Posted in: Advertising, Marketing, Companies, Yahoo

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Weekend Video: Stats Blast From eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey

By Robert Andrews - Fri 16 May 2008 03:16 PM PST

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…

Posted in: Conferences, OPA London

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As Icahn Storms The Gates, Yahoo Sends Google Ad Smoke Signals Again

By Joseph Weisenthal - Fri 16 May 2008 12:08 PM PST

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.

Posted in: Advertising, Companies, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, VC+M&A, Mergers & Acquisitions