New York – As part of its mission to redefine retail online, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, today announced the integration of ShopLocal’s SmartCircular, an online and interactive weekly circular, into Kaboodle.com’
The campaign includes weekly ad units that will run across Kaboodle and other Hearst women’s sites through January 2010. Owned and operated by Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Kaboodle is the largest and fastest-growing online social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products.
“At Hearst our focus is on building strong brand environments and compelling experiences for advertisers and users on the page. The campaign developed by Haworth for Target, which complements our broader strategy to help redefine the way consumers approach retail online, is perfect for the Kaboodle platform,” said Kristine Welker, VP, sales and marketing, Hearst Magazines Digital Media.
The SmartCircular integrates well with Kaboodle’s features, functionality and platform. In addition to offering a digital version of the traditional circular, users will also be able to sort and filter by specific categories (e.g., electronics, baby needs, home or food). They can then add these products and deals to their own weekly shopping lists, which can be viewed by their entire social shopping network on the site. Weekly shopping lists can be printed out to take to the store or sent via email to friends.
Hearst Magazines Digital Media is also working with Gannett-owned PointRoll, the leading provider of rich media advertising, to develop and package a suite of interactive advertising solutions that will run across the network. Together, PointRoll and ShopLocal provide successful rich media display solutions for brands and publishers. This suite offers innovative ad executions and builds on the benefits of combining ShopLocal’s localized content with PointRoll’s rich media creative and optimization capabilities to deliver relevant ads to consumers. Behavioral and geographic targeting will be used in combination with several interactive formats to surface contextually relevant products and offers. The solution has been branded “Shopping Suite” and is a key component in Hearst’s online retail strategy.
“Consumers and retailers are increasingly taking advantage of the Internet not only for online transactions, but to drive in-store traffic. Forrester estimates that research online and buy offline (ROBO) shopping will influence $1 trillion in spending, or half of all retail sales, by 2012,” said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal. “ShopLocal's SmartCircular is a natural step in the shopping process and the last mile to purchasing, by influencing consumer choice of stores to shop and driving sales both online and in the store.”
About Hearst Magazines Digital Media
Launched in March 2006, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, is dedicated to creating and implementing the digital strategy for Hearst’s magazine brands and other sites, which serve the company’s consumers and audience. The unit has launched, re-launched or acquired 25 Web sites and nine mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and Seventeen, as well as original digital properties such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; TheDailyGreen.com;
About ShopLocal
ShopLocal, (http://AboutShopLocal.com) the leader in multi-channel shopping services, helps retailers target and distribute their local marketing promotions through innovative means like online circulars, display advertising, search, social media and mobile. Founded in 1999, ShopLocal pioneered the use of online circulars and has spent the past decade honing the marketing tools, and building a powerful publisher network that connects one-to-one with shoppers
ShopLocal delivers over 350 million visitors and 4.5 billion page views annually to retailers like Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, CVS, Albertsons and Sears. ShopLocal’s industry-leading solutions (SmartDelivery, SmartCircular, SmartCatalog and www.ShopLocal.com)
