Chef serves up food ad network

Stephen Withers
Monday, 25 August 2008 12:18

Business IT - Networking

An Australian chef aims to link major brands in the food and beverage markets with specialist web sites that cater for culinary enthusiasts.

Benjamin Christie - one of the first people to make content available on the Joost peer-to-peer Internet TV network - has launched Gourmet Ads, a service to deliver targeted advertising to blogs and other web sites that deal with food, wine and beer.

Gourmet Ads is initially building a network in Australia, and intends to expand into the US during early 2009.

"Advertisers that work with Gourmet Ads can target consumers that value high quality food, beer and wine. This audience relies on long-tail culinary sites for recipes, ideas and other resources that satisfy their interests," said Christie.

"Marketers need to reach them on the sites that they visit, while they are in the right frame of mind and are thinking about food."

Gourmet Ads is powered by Adify, which already operates ad networks aimed at the travel, pet, arts and culture, technology, movie and entertainment, and home improvement markets, among others.

"Benjamin's expertise as a television presenter, cookbook author and culinary educator has led to the creation of one of the most unique ad networks to date," said Russ Fradin, president of Adify.

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