Oboxmedia has partnered with Penske Media Corporation, providing online ads, sponsored editorial content and brand activations for PMC’s properties within Canada.
PMC brands include Deadline, Variety, Hollywood Life and tech site BGR, among others. Between the properties, PMC sees three million unique visitors online a month in Canada, bringing the audience for Oboxmedia’s entire network to more than 14 million unique visitors, according to comScore numbers from April 2014.
The partnership with PMC gives Oboxmedia an entertainment and lifestyle offering in English Canada that rivals the one it already established within French Canada, which includes HollywoodPQ.com. Andy Querin, senior VP of sales at Oboxmedia, tells MiC that Oboxmedia’s entertainment and lifestyle offering is now “truly national.”
Having more entertainment and lifestyle sites on its roster gives Oboxmedia reach into the female demographic in English Canada, where the company’s offerings skewed more towards males.
“We’ve certainly opened up the female demographic more than we previously had,” Querin says. “The visitors for Hollywood Life, for example, are 80% female. Entertainment in general tends to skew a little more female. It was definitely a portfolio void that we wanted to fill.”
Earlier this year, Oboxmedia signed on to represent videogame-centred video streaming site Twitch.tv in Canada. Other English properties in the company’s network include Shop.ca, Songza, Fight Network and Grooveshark. Oboxmedia’s main office is in Montreal, with branches in Toronto and Vancouver.
Querin says Oboxmedia will be bringing more original content and interactive units to the partnership. The company will also provide PMC with greater access to Canada’s French marketplace, where Querin says Oboxmedia is the number two network in terms of audience size. Oboxmedia will also be providing sponsored, integrated editorial content, social media support and public activations.