In an unparalleled strategic move, SustainLane Media, the Web’s largest green media company, and Citadel Media (previously ABC Radio Networks), a leading broadcaster with more than 110 million weekly listeners across 4,400 affiliate radio stations, have inked a multifaceted partnership. Bridging both editorial and advertising, the deal ultimately creates the first and only multi-media, fully-integrated platform designed to inform, educate and empower Americans to live a more sustainable lifestyle: SustainAmerica (www.SustainLane.com/sustainamerica).
Launching today, SustainAmerica will be the premier online community for Americans seeking to actively improve our environment, providing them the information and tools they need. SustainAmerica will leverage SustainLane Media’s leading proprietary technology platform to create a home for extensive expert and user-generated content such as news, blogs, product reviews and how-tos on living green. Citadel Media will bring considerable marketing muscle, including celebrity talent, to help encourage good eco-behavior among its broad audiences. Toolkits for local action, blogs and audio tips from celebrities and local hero stories will be made available to the SustainAmerica community. The venture will blend on-air radio content (such as PSAs, sponsor vignettes, radio show features and radio personality endorsements) with savvy Web marketing and online/offline tie-ins to deliver great value to advertisers.
The SustainAmerica partnership leverages each organization’s assets to complement and expand their existing advertising capabilities. Online has, until now, been significantly underdeveloped as a revenue opportunity for radio. According to research firm SNL Kagan, online advertising at radio station Web sites amounted to just 2.2% of overall radio ad revenue last year, but will likely grow to 4.5% and more than $1 billion by 2012. Citadel Media and SustainLane Media will be well positioned to capture this growth.
Through the partnership, Citadel Media will have access to high-quality, targeted online advertising space across SustainLane Media’s Green Ad Network, the largest online network consisting of 150+ premium Web properties with 31 million unique monthly visitors and growing. Citadel Media will now have access to a high-impression Network for its clients seeking cross-platform opportunities targeted to green-minded consumers. In turn, SustainLane Media can tap Citadel Media’s comprehensive and established sales team to further provide integrated sales opportunities for its clients’ rapidly expanding access to the online green marketplace.
Sustainability and green vision are at the core of this partnership. As SustainAmerica rolls out, Citadel Media and SustainLane Media plan to produce high-visibility, high-engagement experiences designed to showcase sponsors’ brands with celebrities, the media and target consumers in an eco-friendly environment that will elevate sustainability in America .
Citadel Media is the leading radio network in the sustainability space. In addition to the launch of the SustainAmerica site in partnership with SustainLane, the company was the first and only radio network in its entirety to qualify as an EPA Green Power Partner. Citadel Media purchases 85 percent of its electricity use from renewable energy sources. The company is also donating more than $1 million in air time to environmental PSAs; has formed employee Green Teams in all of its offices; and partnered with city governments in New York and Los Angeles to launch a series of performance events under the “Green Across America†banner that will benefit the urban forestry efforts of Million Trees NYC and Million Trees LA.
“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Citadel Media to create the most innovative and effective media offerings for our audience and advertisers in the green segment,†said James Elsen, CEO and founder of SustainLane Media. “Reaching one third of the US population by radio and another 31 million over the web will give us a powerful engagement opportunity. Our collaboration marries the best elements of radio and the Web, supporting an emerging media strategy that will appeal to advertisers while making green living even more accessible to all Americans.â€
“Our company has made a significant commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and we’re actively pursuing vehicles to drive our audiences toward environmentally-conscious lifestyles,†said Jim Robinson , President of Citadel Media. “Conducting a joint effort with SustainLane in reaching out to communities and individuals across the country and providing them the tools to succeed in their own sustainability efforts is a phenomenal opportunity. With all of our popular on-air hosts supporting this initiative and a weekly programming reach to 110 million listeners, we expect tremendous results.â€
