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July 16, 2009
Insights from Baby Center.com -- Dominating a Vertical Market
I spoke late last week with Tina Sharkey, editor of Baby Center.com (Edelman client) to understand the business strategy of this very successful parenting website. Launched 11 years ago, BabyCenter.com now has 16 million unique users per month (half in the US), operates in 19 countries and reaches up to 90% of expectant mothers in the UK, Canada, Australia and the US. The brand has achieved a leadership position in 15 of the 19 markets in which it operates. Though owned by Johnson & Johnson (Edelman client), the site has independent editorial, no J&J branding and accepts advertising from more than 200 different companies. Here are key points from my discussion with Sharkey:
1) The editorial team consists of 19 editors (one for each market), six reporters in the main office in San Francisco, a global cadre of freelance writers and a medical advisory board. Stories should be proposed to the editorial team, who produce new material and keep evergreen content up-to-date.
2) Parents create their own content through the brand’s social platform, which rates #1, ahead of Café Mom. In fact, one part of the social platform, the Birth Club, matches up moms based on due dates of babies, and then allows them to raise their kids together even though they live far apart, by allowing for exchange of views.
3) A media property must vary its delivery modality by market. In India, with only 3.5% Internet penetration but 50% mobile usage, the BabyCenter content is delivered largely by cell phone. By contrast, in the West, the PC is the primary user vehicle.
4) The company is considering its own video channel. It rejected mass reach TV shows as insufficiently “stage sensitive,” as users want content relevant to the age of their children, from new born to teen. There will be a books division, with publisher BK. But the e-commerce business proved a dead end, given tough competition from multi-channel retailers and Amazon.
5) PR firms or ad agencies can suggest sponsored content, such as the ovulation calculator from First Response (a client) or special reports on moms and money with Charles Schwab (a client).
6) The brand is omni-present, “everywhere moms go for information. We promote our content on Twitter. We have a fan page on Facebook. You can subscribe to our personalized newsletter based on the age of your child, which will appear in your PC’s inbox or on your mobile device.”
7) The search function on BabyCenter, “enables us to be the leading insight engine on parenting."
The development of BabyCenter.com is proof positive of former CBS News president Andrew Heyward’s observation that every company is a media company. Corporations have deep knowledge of specific markets that can be shared with the community. In order to be credible, these entities must recruit editors such as Ms. Sharkey, who bring editorial integrity and a nose for news to the job. For PR companies, this development constitutes an important opportunity to develop an entirely new means of delivering content to stakeholders, whether through our traditional role in pitching stories to journalists, creating sponsored promotions that add value to the site; or supporting clients’ efforts to create their own media engagement channels.
Posted by Edelman at July 16, 2009 10:39 AM |
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