Evolve Media’s lifestyle division TotallyHer Canada has added to its French-language presence, partnering with women’s lifestyle publisher Aufeminin to sell and manage its commercial opportunities. The deal will include content sponsorships, custom content development and display media.
Walder Amaya, Evolve’s Toronto-based executive vice-president of international sales and operations, said the partnership – the result of several months of discussions – significantly adds to what had previously been a “very limited” French offering for TotallyHer Canada.
The two companies share a similar strategic vision and are highly compatible from a content standpoint, he said.
Established in 1999, Aufeminin is a worldwide leader in female-focused editorial and community content, spanning topics such as fashion, parenting, beauty, cooking, shopping, news and society. Amaya described those topics as the “cornerstone” of TotallyHer’s offering.
Aufeminin’s portfolio includes Marmiton, Onmeda, My Little Paris and netmums. The company boasts more than 35 million users per month and 41 million unique mobile visitors. In Canada, its properties – which also include the English property WeWomen.ca – garner 1.1 million unique visitors and five million monthly page views.
“This is one of those situations where one plus one equals three – we have scale, we have reach and our thinking and our offering is very similar, allowing us to capitalize on both English and French opportunities,” said Amaya.
Evolve has added roughly half-a-dozen new publishing partners in Canada over the past year, and will continue to seek out complementary companies, said Amaya.
“It’s not a matter of having hundreds or thousands of publisher partners, but we believe in having the right partners that are complementary that allow us to offer a unique proposition that advertisers can’t get anywhere else,” he said. “We want to be very strategic where we build our audiences, but also our product offering,” he said.
The focus, he added, is on companies that are willing to offer non-standard marketing solutions, particularly content-led initiatives, and are willing to “push the boundaries” on creative solutions.
Evolve operates three verticals: TotallyHer, the male division Crave Online and entertainment/gaming division Gorilla Nation. The company’s topline revenue grew 20% in 2014, said Amaya.
