Heavy Enlists Partners for Men's Network

Heavy Corp. merged its popular Heavy.com with other male-oriented Web sites to form the Heavy Men’s Network. Despite the name, the venture has nothing to do with body size.

According to Heavy, the Heavy Men’s Network is a male-focused online video network aimed for brand advertisers hoping to reach the coveted young male audience.

“At Heavy we own the guy 18- to 34-year-old audience,” said Heavy CMO Eric Hadley. “It’s a young guy audience.”

Among the other male-oriented sites joining Heavy.com at the launch of Heavy Men’s Network are the Banquet Action Sports Digital Network, animation portal Newgrounds, Quincy D. Jones III’s multi-platform “urban” programming site QD3, and video site Vidshadow.

Heavy said more male-focused destination sites are expected to soon be added to the roster.

The network will feature the Husky Media Player “Video Skin” technology created by Heavy, Inc. for its Husky Network ad network, launched in August.

The technology allows publishers to monetize their video by wrapping any video player with the Husky Media Player, which Heavy describes as “a premium, high-CPM ad unit specifically designed for brand advertisers.” Advertising surrounds, but doesn’t intrude upon the video.

Tom Pulp, founder of Newgrounds, said his company partnered with Husky about seven months ago and has enjoyed “a quantity and quality of brand advertisers on Newgrounds that is nothing short of amazing.”

Hadley said Heavy has “taken that technology and that player out to a bunch of other great video sites that attract the young guy audience…to greatly increase our reach.” He said many of the sites that are joining the network “were running tons of video but weren’t monetizing it, so they’ve put Husky in as the video ad monetization unit.”

Hadley said Heavy.com’s doing well and is on target to achieve close to 50 million unique users per month before the end year. In a statement accompanying the Heavy Men’s Network launch announcement, Hadley said advertising networks “traditionally focused only on quantity,” while The Heavy Men’s Network “extends this focus to also include the quality and differentiation of the ads — such as the size and placement — to ensure 100 percent share of voice for our advertisers.”