Handbag.com relaunches with new ‘glossy’ online advertising formats

Handbag.com, the women’s portal, is positioning itself as a “glossy” online with the launch of new advertising formats, as part of the site’s relaunch later this month. It will allow advertisers to create full-page ads online.

The new site aims to offer advertisers the chance to replicate glossy magazine ads and will also offer premium positioning on page. Handbag.com marketing director Alicen Stenner says other bespoke offerings will include interstitials, overlays, MPU and leaderboard formats.

Stenner says: “The new-look homepage will have fewer words and editorial, allowing advertisers to display larger-format ads and mimic the front cover of a glossy. Advertisers can also ‘own a page’ by watermarking or using branded colours across the editorial elements. It will be very clear what is advertising and what is not, however. And we will reduce the number of ads per page to two or three.”

She adds that with 80% of the portal’s audience using broadband access, the site will stream video and other rich media advertising and editorial, such as catwalk shows, fashion shoots and video ads for fashion brands.

Advertisers will also be able to interact with users via a new networking element. Users can upload profiles and interact with each other. Stenner says that 70,000 users regularly leave posts, while 400,000 users actively read them.