Alloy Adds Zwinky to Virtual Worlds and Social Media Advertising Mix

Alloy Media + Marketing has signed with Zwinky to sell advertising for the IAC-owned virtual world and avatar service. The online ad network already includes kids- and teen-oriented worlds like Habbo Hotel, avatar-based Meez, widget producers Rock.com, and Alloy.com.  "This is about us deciding strategically that we're going to exponentially get more aggressive with this business and try to create an overwhelming force in the teen market to attract the best sites, partners and ad dollars that want to connect with this young audience,"  Derek White, EVP at Alloy, told AdWeek.

Zwinky's  VP of Strategic Revenue Michael Primian explained that the partnership with Alloy would give Zwinky access to key advertisers in the demographic and provide them with existing, experienced relationships.

It also bolsters Zwinky's numbers quite a bit.

Kids and teens worlds like Zwinky and Habbo are certainly leading the numbers race in entertainment-based virtual worlds, but to what end? While Zwinky and Habbo hotel each already draw about 7.5 million users per month, combined that's just slightly more than the number of viewers that CSI's Second Life episode was likely to attract.

Zwinky and Habbo haven't slouched in terms of attracting marketers interested in integrated advertising, but some advertisers still feel like the numbers are too low to spend serious time considering for a media buy. Now that Zwinky has joined Alloy's Teen.com network, it is part of a group that has provides a reach of 17 million user 13-to-19-year-olds.

With the mass of  kids and teen worlds coming out over the next year--many of whom can't hope to get Habbor or Zwinky's 7.5 million users--there has been some interest in creating similar ad networks to make the smaller sites more appealing.

If even the biggest youth worlds are doing it, it seems like a distinct possibility.