BRINGING ONLINE AG ADVERTISERS AND PUBLISHERS TOGETHER.

Engage Business Media is a new online advertising network serving the needs of business-to-business advertisers and publishers in a dozen major vertical industries, including agriculture. Operating since March, the network has signed on 170 Web sites across the 12 vertical audience groups.

Engage Business Media is a division of Engage Inc., an Andover, Mass.-based provider of online marketing solutions.

"By aggregating leading Web sites and e-mail newsletters in each audience group, we can deliver targeted, highly valued Web and e-mail advertising inventory, which is an effective way for advertisers to reach their most important prospects online," says Pete Aldrich, business development manager heading up the agriculture vertical.

Aldrich notes that the online advertising network benefits ag advertisers as well as publishers:

* Advertisers can reach a target audience through a single media buy of banner ads on agribusiness Web sites or ads in email newsletters sent to farmers. "We provide companies with a cost-efficient way to reach their customers via the Web," Aldrich explains. "We offer targeted buys based on geography, type of farmer and content area on a site."

* Web publishers can monetize the advertising inventory on their sites and in their e-mail newsletters. "By being part of a network, publishers can aggregate their advertising inventory with like inventory, making it much more valuable to advertisers and agencies," Aldrich says. "Ultimately, this allows publishers to significantly maximize their advertising revenue." He defines publishers as 1) large e-commerce sites that are transaction based; 2) traditional print publications that have a Web site as well; and 3) a newer niche of content-specific sites such as www.grainfarmer.com.

Agriculture is one of the fastest growing vertical markets for Engage and has 16 Web sites. "At more than 5 million monthly impressions (when an ad is viewed by someone), Engage owns the largest, most valuable agriculture inventory on the Web today," Aldrich says. "Our goal is to build a critical mass in each niche, such as grain farmers, chemicals, dairy and equipment."

He adds, ensuring that sites are reaching the targets is vital. Through a separate division, Engage offers measurement of the sites in its vertical audience groups. The company is actively involved with the Agribusiness Internet Advertising Council to help determine industry standards for measurement.