Glam Aims to Dominate Social Hip Hop...Maybe

“We really don’t want to enter markets unless we can be dominant.”

That’s what Glam Media CEO and Chairman Samir Arora said during this week’s EconAds conference here in New York. It seemed pretty bold, and I thought about it when I read this morning about how Glam is partnering with Global Grind, a social network for hip-hop fans. Global Grind is using Glam’s Managed Vertical Network platform for a new “hip-hop based vertical network” that’s now part of Glam’s Entertainment Channel. Evidently, Russell Simmons is a financial backer of Global Grind.

“Global Grind will recruit the best sites and blogs to the co-branded publisher network, while the Digital Primetime brand ads will be managed by Glam Media,” notes the press release.

Digital Primetime is Glam’s targeting technology.

“Prime time” seems to be part of Arora’s regular lexicon. At the conference he commented that compared to TV advertising, “The Internet is really backwards…. [I don’t understand why] most companies have been really focused on remnant inventory rather than focus on what the prime time inventory is.” The goal of Glam, he said, is to “completely and totally focus on brand advertisers.”

He continued saying his firm never moves into a vertical without having an “anchor” site, meaning a Glam-owned property, to ensure the company understands the vertical they’re entering.

It’s all starting to come together, sort of. According to the press release, the new hip-hop network will be “anchored by Global Grind.”

(OK, there’s no affiliation to MTV’s old hip hop dance show “The Grind,” but I couldn’t resist throwing in an image).