Universal Music Group (UMG) has formed a partnership with Kiwibox, a social networking site and weekly online magazine for teens. Under the agreement, more than 5,000 of UMG’s full-length music videos will be available in Kiwibox Music Videos.
The partnership creates branding and sponsorship opportunities for advertisers looking to reach Kiwibox’s 2.4 million registered teen members.
Plans are to have wrapped video players and sponsored sections on the site, said Mike Howard, Kiwibox COO and co-founder.
“The users come first so if we stick to the sponsorship model [as opposed to pre-roll], it will keep the user experience as high-quality as possible,” he said.
No clients have signed on yet specifically for Kiwibox Music Videos sponsorships, but Howard said there are some RFPs in the works. In the past, brands such as Kmart, Kohls and Tampax have all run ad campaigns on the site.
Later this year, Kiwibox, which began in 1999, will launch embeddable, sponsored music players that users will be able to add to their Facebook or MySpace profiles.
Kiwibox is also the flagship site for the ad network Kiwibox Teen, which consists of more than 75 other teen-centric entertainment, fashion and gaming sites such as i-dressup.com, student.com and bubblebox.com. The network reaches around 15 million unique users per month.
