Flycast's Event-Themed Buys Target Advertisers

Brandweek, Oct 18, 1999 by Sloane Lucas

Flycast Communications, a provider of Internet direct-response advertising solutions, today begins offering media buyers packages built around special events and holidays. The option will help e-commerce sites target holiday shoppers, for example, or help lure concerned citizens to a financial site come Tax Day.

The promotional "Category Buys" also cover such things as the Oscars, the Grammy's, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and football season, including the Super Bowl.

For holiday 1999, for example, an advertiser could buy a package that included all e-commerce and enthusiast sites within the Flycast network of sites, hoping to reach users who are buying gifts or investigating gift options.

The e-commerce sites would provide an opportunity to target users who are already in the mindset to shop, explained Lyn Chitow Oakes, chief marketing officer at San Francisco, Calif.-based Flycast. "There is a real window of opportunity where we know consumers are focused on specific acts," she said.

Flycast's sales force and collateral material will tout the buys. (There is no ad effort planned.) Flycast expects the packages to be a hit with media buyers, if only for the ease of purchase. According to Jeff Lehman, executive vice president and chief revenue officer for Flycast, the success of these initial offerings may spur Flycast to package more buys. "Category buys are an incremental revenue stream for our sites," said Lehman. "They love that."

Flycast has updated all of its volume discount pricing across the board, lowering the CPM of its all its buys to $12. Advertisers can still purchase a run-of-network buy, as well as Flycast's customized option, which lets advertisers create buys consisting of select sites chosen from 25 categories.