IAR Bits and Bytes

B2BWorks Signs GE to Ad Network

Chicago-based ad network B2BWorks signed GE Services Network as a publishing affiliate. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although the company said it granted equity to GE as a result.

B2BWorks, which focuses on repping B2B sites exclusively, will now sell third-party advertising on GE’s corporate portals, beginning with plastics-industry sites GE Polymerland.com, GE Silicones and GE Plastics.

The inventory includes standard banners, buttons and skyscrapers.

GE is one of few large companies to sell third-party ads on its own sites. However, the sites do attract a sizable amount of traffic and qualified leads: GE’s Polymerland.com alone had more than $1.4 billion in online sales last year, with weekly site traffic of about 10,000.

And there’s a healthy market for advertising in the plastics industry. According to Competitive Media Reporting, more than $40 million was spent on print advertising for plastics during 2000.

Be Free Signs New Customers

Affiliate marketing technology firm Be Free said it added several new clients to its roster in February.

The Marlborough, Mass.-based company, which sets up pay-for-performance programs for clients to reward other sites that refer sales leads, signed SuperPages.com, Hearst Magazines, fish and tackle store Basspro.com, Internet developer tools site Bravenet.com, affiliate marketer/pay-per-click search engine EasyMoney101.com, HealthInsurance.com, and ScholarshipExperts.com.

Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

MatchLogic Boosts E-mail Addresses

Ad server and online marketing technology firm MatchLogic said its DeliverE opt-in email database now has 20 million addresses — double what it had months ago.

The Westminster, Colo.-based company, a wholly owned subsidiary of broadband firm Excite@Home, said the increase allows customers to reach a greater number of target consumers.

The DeliverE service offers email list rental, campaign assembly, email delivery, reporting and analysis, campaign optimization, and predictive and descriptive modeling.

MatchLogic’s email service includes the ability to target consumers through more than 210 demographic, geographic, and lifestyle selects, as well as lifestyle profiles. DeliverE also offers rich media messaging capabilities, email creative assembly, email testing across all industry-standard email client platforms, and measurement.

Uncommon Media Group in Talks With Magazine Publishers

New York-based Uncommon Media Group, Inc. aims to make it easier for offline magazine publishers to offer advertisers more in-depth information on their readership, using the Web and distributed CDs.

The company creates CDs that are distributed in major magazines; the CDs contain information on products that are featured in the magazines’ articles and ads, as well as full-motion videos, contests and links. The CDs also include e-commerce opportunities, in addition to ways to collect consumer information — such as surveys or required registrations to access CD content. Advertisers can view and analyze the aggregated data via UMGi’s Web interface.

UMGi says the model can provide both additional advertising revenue and reader information, pointing to a trial run last year.

A test market CD last year was included in 125,000 issues of Road & Track magazine. Of the 125,000 readers who received the CD, publisher Hachette Filipacchi estimates a 38 percent registration response, with each registrant providing postal and email addresses, demographic data, and survey answers.