Nickelodeon acquires babunga.com, strengthens parents marketing opportunity

jukebox acquired parenting oriented Babunga.com web this week and will incorporate the online property into a larger ParentsConnect web. The move is seen as a way for jukebox to help marketers reach even more parents in add-on to kids interested in Saint Patrick the sea star or the Naked blood brother Band.

The Babunga.com web 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 electronic mail.

Kid-oriented networks are becoming increasingly competitive when it comes to capitalizing on their entree to household decision shaper, in add-on to youth, said Ian Schafer, chief executive director of selling 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 likely a couple of other verticals where there is a lot of determination making power. Which makes it a more valuable audience for advertisers."

Earlier this week, GoFish announced the constitution of an ad web to mark those aged six to 17 on sites including Miniclip.com and CartoonDollEmporium.com.

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