BuzzFeed’s New Pitch To TV Networks: Use Our Brand

BuzzFeed has become a destination for young, pop-culture aficionados through its hearty offering of TV-themed stories, lists and quizzes such as “What Would Your ‘Game of Thrones’ Name Be?” Now, the online publisher is offering TV networks a chance to align their brands more closely to BuzzFeed’s.

BuzzFeed is offering to let TV networks use its brand name for on-air and digital promotions for their shows. Cable channels IFC and Bravo, which have quietly tested the service in recent months, have signed on as launch partners.

The service is part of an expansion of an existing BuzzFeed marketing offering to TV networks, which already pay the site to create stories deemed to be of interest to the shows’ target audiences. The so-called “sponsored content” is distinguished from regular editorial stories and makes clear that the story was created on behalf of the advertising brand.

The new advertising services highlight how BuzzFeed, an online publisher which creates content designed to be shared through social media, is attempting to become a more important venue for entertainment advertising -- a market that big social media sites and online publishers are targeting aggressively.