• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 10, 2008

UrbanDaddy.com, the e-newsletter for affluent and active men, has launched a customized microsite for Don Julio Tequila. From the best late-night Chinese food in New York to the hottest lounge in Chicago, "The Find," points guys to the best locales in the biggest cities.

 

"Don Julio saw what we've done for other brands, and they wanted something big and something authentic," said Lance Broumand, founder and CEO of UrbanDaddy.

Over the past year, UrbanDaddy has parlayed its editorial staff's keen eye for styles and trends into several highly customized sponsorships for brands like Belvedere Vodka, Braun, and Sony. According to Robert Petrausch, vice president of sales at UrbanDaddy, budgets for such sponsorships run in the low six figures, but are increasing rapidly.

"By '09, I think we'll be hitting the million-dollar range," Petrausch said. "Brands want bigger campaign, and more integration with microsites and offline events."

Customized campaigns can include any combination of co-branded microsites, contests and sweepstakes, events, parties, tastings, live music, and private sales.

UrbanDaddy is hardly the only publisher experimenting with sponsored editorial offerings. Heavy.com and Heineken, for example, just partnered on "The Heavy Hit List"--an information service to keep guys abreast or relevant news, events, and trends.

Yet at a time when many Web publishers see riches in distributed content and ad networks, UrbanDaddy is seeking to set itself apart with highly selective offerings, coupled with its increasingly customized sponsorship campaigns.

"Our success is based on exclusivity, attention to the subjects we cover, and the good taste of our editorial staff," Broumand said. As a result, UrbanDaddy claims to deliver higher metrics across the board, including click-through-rates as high as 15%.

Since March 2005, UrbanDaddy has grown its invitation-only newsletter business to include some 350,000 highly desirable subscribers in five U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami.

By contrast, DailyCandy.com--the e-newsletter for affluent females, which was recently acquired by Comcast for $125 million--currently goes out to roughly 2.5 million readers.

Still, Broumand claims that UrbanDaddy's readership is growing rapidly, and that fewer channels exist for marketers to reach affluent males than females--thus making UrbanDaddy's position more valuable overall.

"We've found success with a very unique Web 1.0 business model," Broumand said. "There just aren't that many ways for marketers to reach this demographic."