San Francisco-based Online Partners launched eCommunity,
a program “that allows advertisers to target, test, refine and deliver
advertising and promotions by directly engaging in online dialogs with the
communities they target.”
eCommunity uses interactive tools that help build and reinforce online
communities, such as chat, e-mail and message boards, throughout a Web site to
create multiple opportunities for buyer-seller dialog, the company said. Using
information derived from these exchanges, advertisers can create online and
offline advertising and promotions that more effectively target their
audience.
The eCommunity program works with any community, from affinity groups to
vertical business markets, the company said. It leverages number of visitors,
which establishes the size of a consumer sample over time; number of
concurrent online users, which sets the number of consumers available for
advertiser interaction at any one time; and time spent online, which provides
guidelines for how long the consumer may be willing to be engaged.
Andrew Cramer, Online Partners CEO, said: “. . .eCommunity is fully-interactive
market research, advertising and promotion that reflects the commercial
activities of the ‘real world,’ where the give-and-take between buyer and
seller is part of the promotion process.”
The newly launched Gay.com Network will be the first Online
Partners site to offer the eCommunity e-commerce program. The Gay.com Network
unites the content, community and advertising efforts of Internet-focused
Gay.com and Gay.Net with onQ on America Online.
Online Partners, an affinity group marketing company that develops large e-
commerce-friendly communities on the Web, said it will be introducing the
eCommunity e-commerce program to advertisers over the next 60 days.
