Women’s digital network Mamamia is eyeing television, events and e-commerce as part of its expansion in 2015. National sales director Kylie Rogers said that unlike other media companies, Mamamia isn’t having to make a shift to digital and doesn’t have to change what it's already doing to understand the female audience.
Before the network's upfronts, which took place in Sydney this morning, Rogers told AdNews that other media companies are currently having to fundamentally change to not only understand the digital medium, but also women’s needs and what they really want out of online content.
“They’re trying to shapeshift from being a traditional medium to an online medium, they’re trying to shapeshift from being run by men to trying to focus on women. We always have and always will be digital first, and women first, and I just don’t think you can fake that stuff,” she said.
“Our purpose in life is to make women feel better about themselves. Every day with our pure editorial content and our native content we ask ourselves: ‘Is this is going to make us feel good?’ We have a checklist and when you’re that disciplined and you know women intimately, because you are one, then you really are able to deliver authenticity.”
Mamamia TV will roll out in 2015 and the offering will incorporate all of the content verticals across the Mamamia network. Rogers explained that the brand was expanding into TV because it was something that its audiences have said they want.
“The insight coming from our audience [is that] they want a deeper insight with us. They will view it and they want it,” she said.
The TV launch will be accompanied by a revamp of the Mamamia site and a bolstering of events based off the back of the success of content pieces on the sites.
One such piece was the weekly reviews of Channel Ten program The Bachelor, which drew 6.6 million unique browsers over the series and had people give the content 2.85 years of attention time.
The network was founded by Mia Freedman and has three sites in the stable – the original site, Mamamia, parenting site iVillage, and beauty-focussed site The Glow. Another site, Daily Bebrief, will also go live in quarter one next year, aimed at women over 40.
Freedman, told AdNews: “You've got your first Gen Xer who is turning 50 next year, so Debrief Daily really came about to follow where the conversation goes next with women 40-plus.”
It isn't just the new site that is being launched, the network will also be creating a presence in the online video space, as well as plans for bolstering the networks’ podcasts.
“Two years ago we were getting 20,000 unique browsers a day, most days we’re getting 420,000 a day,” Rogers said. “We have three great sites, with a fourth coming, and I particularly want to start allowing our audience to start engaging those sites through multi-platform opportunities.”
From a client perspective this growth means different opportunities for advertisers, she said. “We really want to give our clients commercial opportunities that sit across those platforms and really allow clients to drive their earned and owned assets through these programs.”
To show that the network knows women, it also unveiled a 15,000 strong survey of women at its upfronts this morning, and what women want definitely isn't celebrities, with 86% of women surveyed placing no value on celebrity ambassador.
Face to face interactions with people in their lives are deemed more influential.The site reckons the magic number is 43, with women having on average interactions with 43 people each week.
The other findings included that passive influence is more effective than overt selling, however when the two are combined, via native and banner ads, that is the way to get women moving through the purchase funnel and converting leads into sales.
A verson of this story previously appeared in the 14 November issue of AdNews in print. You can subscribe to the print mag here or get it on iPad here.
For more news:
Mamamia to launch new site aimed at women 40-plus
Mamamia confirms Kylie Rogers as national sales director
Return of the native: How to measure advertising's great white hope
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