Flycast Communications Corp. kicked off the commercial release of its e-mail newsletter ad-serving capability this week, and for the first time, the San Francisco company has revealed some of the advertisers that have signed on with the service.
The service, an undertaking by the eDispatch division Flycast established last year, lets businesses run ads on newsletters that publishers send to subscribers via e-mail. The company charges $8 per thousand impressions across the entire newsletter network, or a $16 CPM across sets of newsletters that fall in a particular category.
Advertisers using the newsletter network include photo site zing.com, business services firm DigitalWork.com Inc., insurance comparison site BestQuote.com, energy and communications merchant Essential.com and sweepstakes company FreeLotto.com.
“We have more demand than we have inventory,” said Bill Jacobson, vice president of eDispatch at Flycast.
Flycast, which is trying to branch out beyond Web-site banner advertising, intends to divide newsletter affiliates into 25 separate categories for advertisers trying to narrow the types of readers they reach. Four categories are currently available: entertainment, family, health and shopping.
The company has 100 affiliates and is adding 25 each week, Jacobson said. Affiliates include humor newsletters jokesinthemail.com and Twisted Straw as well as educational e-mail letter KinderArt and a software newsletter from RJL Software.
The company said Lyris Technologies Inc., Berkeley, CA, a firm that makes software for running newsletter programs, has integrated the Flycast ad server into the latest version of its products. Flycast is allowing newsletter outsource firms Boomerang.com, Palo Alto, CA, and GuestTrack Inc., Los Angeles, to access its ad server as well.
Flycast executives hope eventually to sell companies a fuller range of e-mail marketing services via eDispatch. The newsletter service primarily is designed to handle customer acquisition. This year the division will introduce services designed to run inhouse e-mail lists or help businesses keep their established customers, Jacobson said.
