iMedia's Rebecca Weeks sits down with the CEO of Glam.com to discuss how the partnership between fashion and entertainment is being strengthened by new media and marketing technologies.

The Academy Awards and Valentino gowns. Movie premiers and Jimmy Choo shoes. Everyone knows that fashion and entertainment go hand in hand. But until now, no one knew that bloggers and advertising could strengthen this bond like print never could.

Glam Media Inc. is proving it. It's the first fashion media company that started with the goal of bringing together content and brand advertising contextually for women online, according to Samir Arora, founder and chairman of the company.

Arora may be new to fashion but not to the internet-- he was chairman of eMode & Tickle, chairman and CEO of NetObjects and was once an executive at Apple Computer. His vision is to develop a targeted audience and content that that provides context and relevance for both advertisers and readers.

iMedia's Rebecca Weeks asked Arora to discuss Glam's online publishing strategies and describe what women really want to see and buy online.

Rebecca Weeks: What makes Glam different from other fashion and beauty websites?

Samir Arora: Glam delivers unique interactive content that is specifically created to engage online users. Its proprietary content publishing platform allows Glam editors to build pages that have a similar emotional feel to the experience of reading a magazine. It provides highly interactive content with quizzes, stories that involve the reader, blog posts, video and podcasts.

Lastly, Glam is a new media company that is helping give independent publishers a voice and reach through the Glam Network. With more than150 publishing affiliates, Glam is the leading fashion and beauty network online that provides a rich environment for content and links, and places top brand advertisers in leading professional sites and blogs, in addition to Glam's sites.

Weeks: Which category is the most heavily trafficked on your site and why?

Arora: The most trafficked content on Glam is the unique interactive content that engages the woman online. It fits with the web as a medium and is created with the internet user in mind. Examples of these are Glam's interactive quizzes, fashion and celebrity style features, blog posts, video and podcasts, and of course what Glam is uniquely known for-- all products on the website are available with a "click-to-buy" from the top fashion and beauty retailers.

Weeks: Let's talk about the Glam's value as an entertainment marketing platform. How are TV and movie properties using the site to promote their offerings?

Arora: ABC's "The Bachelor" used Glam to help launch its new 2006 season. Glam delivered a unique interactive campaign with a brand immersion section-- enabling consumers to directly engage with the Bachelor brand. In two weeks, Glam delivered more than 250 hours of time spent by online viewers in direct interaction with the Bachelor brand.

Another example is for Fox's launch of the movie "The Devil Wears Prada." Glam made the preview trailer, video and behind the scenes photos exclusively in addition to delivering brand banner ads on the site.

Weeks: What does Glam provide to marketers that other sites or print channels are not providing?

Arora: There are some major benefits to working with us:

1. Targeted media. Unlike many recent properties online that have experienced meteoric growth but have uncertain monetization business models (like YouTube), Glam is in a target segment of a highly desirable demographic--women in ages 21 to 49. In July, Glam was number one in indexed target reach of women 21 to 49 and young women 21 to 34, against iVillage and Style.com.
2. High value brand advertising. Women's magazines have traditionally enjoyed luxury and premium brand advertising with high print CPMs. Glam is the first online company to focus on top brand advertisers, just like Google did for text-based advertisers. Furthermore, Glam is creating new advertising opportunities to engage the online user with brand immersion advertorials, interactive advertising and rich media video ads.
3. Context by focusing on style. Glam is further unique in building deep context by focusing only on lifestyle content: fashion, beauty, celebrity style and shopping. And unlike modes where the advertising has low impact, Glam is leveraging the contextual women's print magazine advertising model by pairing brand advertisers to content stories using GlamSense.

Weeks: Focusing in on your point above, what have you learned about women's web surfing habits?

Arora: Women online want content that is interactive and involving-- current news, top stories, quizzes, polls, inspirational articles and stories that fulfill their emotional needs online. They tend to lead very busy lives, so having access when they need it -- at work or at home late at night -- is essential. Sites that recognize women are carrying multiple roles and are in different modes is important -- having deep content organized in easy ways -- with transparency about paid for products or advertising is very important.

Weeks: What insights do your traditional media and publishing advisors/contributors bring to your business?

Arora: Traditional Media knowledge was key in understanding the needs of the top fashion and beauty brand advertisers, which was essential in helping create a breakthrough with Glam. Also, a deep knowledge of fashion designers and the fashion industry was key in Glam's launch at Fashion Week, in September 2005, as a new company but with deep relationships established. Currently, Glam has more than 70 retail partnerships with over 1,200 brands, and can feature over one million products live.

At the deepest level, Glam had to understand the emotional needs that a woman feels in print and TV for her lifestyle, and create a way for these feelings to be met in the online medium. The knowledge of the media advisors and contributors was key in Glam's achieving this. With their help, most consumers intuitively respond to Glam as: "I love this content and the way it is presented to me."

Rebecca Weeks is content director for iMedia Summits. Read full bio.