E-mail marketer Naviant said it has acquired online loyalty play SweepsClub.com, in a bid to launch an online pay-for-performance unit.
Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Three-year-old SweepsClub, which has offices in Deerfield Beach, Fla. and New York City, specializes in running sweepstakes and contests. Consumers receive entries into contests by registering for trial offers from advertisers or agreeing to receive marketing messages.
Clients include financial services firm Ameriquest, DataDate.com, and the Republican National Committee, as well as e-mail list brokers like yesmail.com.
Boca Raton, Fla.-based Naviant said the site, which operates chiefly on a performance pricing model, would become the centerpiece of its own cost-per-action unit.
The purchase comes on the heels of increasing efforts by online advertising industry players to beef up their performance-based products. In recent weeks, search engine Google unveiled a cost-per-click model for its AdWords keyword product, while longtime pay-for-performance ad network ValueClick announced a deal to buy affiliate marketing firm Be Free
to enhance its offerings.
Industry watchers like the Interactive Advertising Bureau have also said they’ve seen performance-based pricing deals on the rise in recent quarters.
“The hottest trend in online advertising is performance-based marketing, and since SweepsClub.com is an innovative leader in this field, they will add instant expertise to Naviant,” said Naviant Chief Executive Michael Brauser.
In addition to assuming control of the site’s roster of advertisers, Naviant also will get SweepsClub.com’s consumer database, which contains about six million opt-in records, it said.
Combined with Naviant’s recent acquisitions of e-mail marketer eDirect, and postal direct mail marketer Data One Marketing, Brauser said the newest addition would position his firm as a “one-stop shop for all online and direct mail marketing needs.”
Still, Naviant’s moves come in the face of competition not only with fellow dot-coms, but with offline marketing giants like Experian and infoUSA, which are making inroads into the online sector.
Last month, InfoUSA bought the e-mail list services unit of online ad technology player DoubleClick . Experian, a unit of Great Universal Stores PLC, announced its intent to purchase beleaguered Homestore.com’s
ConsumerInfo.com division. Last year, the Nottingham, U.K.-based consumer data giant purchased Exactis, the e-mail marketing division of 24/7 Media, now 24/7 Real Media
.
