Handbag signs Lycos deal

Women’s website will provide Internet portal with editorial content in return for high-profile exposure and links back to Handbag.com

Handbag.com, the Boots and Daily Telegraph-backed women’s website, has linked up with Internet portal Lycos UK & Ireland, part of Lycos Europe.

The deal involves Handbag.com supplying editorial content to a variety of Lycos areas, including health and beauty, careers, family, home and garden, food and drink and sport and fitness. Lycos will also feature prominent links to features from the Handbag.com home page on its own “lifestyle” channel home page.

Handbag will supply six lead stories to Lycos every week, for each of the above channels. Lycos will promote the themed content within each channel, alongside other premium content, shopping and related community features.

Handbag.com editorial director Sheila Sang says Lycos is “one of the most popular portals for women in our target market. We develop our own content and this partnership underlines the quality and appeal of the editorial information we bring to our users.”

Alex Kovach, managing director of Lycos UK & Ireland, says the partnership “underscores Lycos UK & Ireland’s commitment to seeking content partnerships which ultimately benefit our customers.

“Recent figures from Nielsen indicate that the number of women visiting Lycos UK & Ireland is increasing every month and we firmly believe that targeted content of this calibre will please our existing users as well as attract new ones.”

In March, Handbag appointed below-the line agency Joshua to develop a &£5m marketing campaign.

Women account for 60 per cent of new Internet users, according to new research from Handbag.com competitor iVillage.co.uk (which is currently an advertiser on Lycos.co.uk). It also notes that women play a dominant role in online purchases of holidays and property.