• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 7, 2007

Gather.com, a social network geared to a grown-up demographic, plans to announce new sponsorship deals today with several blue-chip advertisers: Charles Schwab, Expedia.com, Amtrak, AARP and Universal Music Classical/Decca.

And, in a show of confidence, Starbucks has renewed its existing ad relationship with Gather. Late last year, the coffee giant signed on to promote its book club through Gather's community of 212,000-or-so registered members.

Beyond general membership, Gather members are encouraged to join interest groups like travel, music, finance and politics. In turn, these sub-communities are giving advertisers a chance to target particular groups: Charles Schwab has signed on to blanket the finance section; Expedia.com is interested in Gather's travel community; while Universal Music is sticking to the music category.

While the length of these deals can range from a month to a year, advertisers, on average, are signing on for six months, said Tom Gerace, Gather founder and CEO.

Another option for advertisers is to create a section-specific page, which members can choose to join. Along these lines, Amtrak is building a community of train-travelers on Gather, while AARP is establishing a community for Gather member of retirement-age and beyond.

"These two main sponsorship options let advertisers engage with social networks at a level they're comfortable with," said Gerace.

Positioning itself as an alternative to younger-skewing social-networking environments, the median age of Gather's audience is 42, with most possessing a college degree and having an annual household income over $50,000. But like many social networks, the site's audience tends to skew toward women, who make up 54% of its users.

Launched in 2005, Gather is now signing several thousand members a week, according to Gerace. Prior to the Starbucks deal, Gather had teamed with Nintendo, Volvo and Equifax.

Gather is also aggressively seeking partnerships with content publishers. Last month, it struck deals with Harvard Health Publications, Publishers Weekly, McGraw-Hill Professional and Columbia Records to each provide exclusive content and online experts in the areas of books, music and health.

Come May, Gather members will be able to upload and share video, said Gerace. Video advertising, meanwhile, had long been possible on the site.