Nickelodeon Acquires Babunga.com, Strengthens Parents Marketing Opportunity

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Nickelodeon acquired parenting oriented Babunga.com network this week and will incorporate the online property into a larger ParentsConnect Network. The move is seen as a way for Nickelodeon to help marketers reach even more parents in addition to kids interested in Patrick the starfish or the Naked Brothers Band.

The Babunga.com network includes sites for new and expectant mothers like babynamesworld.com, 3dpregnancy.com, and wikiparenting.com. Those sites will be added to Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect Web site, which already includes parentpreviews.com; baby-gaga.com, greatschools.net, smartmomma.com, and others.

"The ParentsConnect Network gives advertisers the ability to expand their conversations across multiple sites that all focus on parents," Nada Stirratt, EVP, MTV Networks Digital Media, told ClickZ in an e-mail.

Kid-oriented networks are becoming increasingly competitive when it comes to capitalizing on their access to family decision makers, in addition to youth, said Ian Schafer, chief executive of marketing agency Deep Focus, and a ClickZ columnist.

"The race is on," said Schafer. "The Mom's demographic, if you want to call it that, is becoming increasingly valuable. It's a vertical within probably a couple of other verticals where there is a lot of decision making power. Which makes it a more valuable audience for advertisers."

Earlier this week, GoFish announced the establishment of an ad network to target those aged six to 17 on sites including Miniclip.com and CartoonDollEmporium.com.

Financial details of Nickelodeon's Babunga acquisition were not disclosed.