Founded in 2007 in Singapore, blog advertising community Nuffnang now has over 350,000 bloggers in the Asia-Pacific region. Brands advertising on the blogs include Nike, Citibank, Nokia, F&N, Disney Pictures, Honda, Samsung and Proctor and Gamble.

30 July 2011 saw around 300 bloggers from all over Australia converge on Federation Square for Nuffnang Blogopolis, a blogger conference offering seven masterclasses. While food bloggers and fashion bloggers were represented, the majority of attendees were mummy bloggers. “There’s a huge movement in the US,” explains Nuffnang Australia Country Manager, David Krupp. “There’s BlogHer which is probably the biggest social media conference in the world, it’s targeted at women and they get about 3,500 women turning up.” Several Australian Mummy bloggers who attended Nuffnang’s conference also headed off to San Diego for BlogHer which runs from 4 – 6 August 2011. Eden Riley of Edenland, was invited to speak.

Far from just an affectionate nickname, mummy bloggers represent not only the majority of Nuffnang’s Australian bloggers, but owners of the most lucrative blogs in Australia. “You’ll see that a lot of bloggers have been sponsored to go to BlogHer from around the world,” says Krupp. “The movement has exploded over the last 6 – 12 months. At Nuffnang [Australia] we have about 215 mummy bloggers in our network, which equates to about 1.3million page views per month, so it’s quite huge. It’s probably our fastest growing community, our fastest growing vertical, and that’s because they are genuinely influential.

“We just did the first ever blogger survey in Australia and we found 89% of those interviewed actually are involved in purchasing decisions and 78% are grocery buyers. A significant proportion of those surveyed were mummy bloggers so they’re very influential in the household and that’s why marketers are interested in working with them.”

With more and more bloggers and readers engaging with communities online, through blog comments, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, shoppers are increasingly turning to these communities for advice on purchase decisions. As Krupp says, “78% of people who responded to the [Nuffnang] survey actually said that they use blogs as a more primary source of information than your traditional newspapers and magazines and other mainstream media outlets. I think certainly there is a greater movement towards fragmentation within the media landscape [as to] where people are finding out their news and information.”

There is sometimes a difference between a good blogger and a good commercial blogger. Bloggers choose their own style and language parameters, which is part of their authenticity and charm, but not all language is appropriate for a blue chip client, and mummy blogs certainly aren’t all PG rated. “Any person who’s a good blogger is a great opportunity for advertisers,” says Krupp. “Of course something like swearing doesn’t really work well for a lot of conservative blue chip clients, so you might be a huge blogger but you might have an acid tongue and you might drop every swear single word out there, and that just doesn’t make you a good commercialisation prospect. But, generally speaking if you are a good blogger, which means that you get good traffic and you get a good community of engaged readers, that makes you a great platform for any advertiser. I wouldn’t put any restraints on anyone who wants to become more commercial.”

Krupp’s role is to explain the environment to advertisers. Banner advertisements were once the most popular form of advertising, however a shift towards sponsored content is occurring. It's important to note that sponsored content needs to be in the blogger’s voice. “I think advertisers really need to understand that. I think they do understand that blogging is a very authentic place to advertise. It has a platform of genuine content, of genuine people and that’s why it is so lucrative, because these people are extremely influential, because they are your mums, your dads, your full time workers, your students, your starving journalists, they are real people who have real followings. Advertisers do understand the area they are playing in; some more than others absolutely, but generally speaking they do understand the parameters in which they are working.”

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Twitter role:

Pictured: Phoebe Montague: @ladymelbourne, David Krupp: @davekrupp, Nikki Parkinson: @stylingyou, Arnold Aranez: @mr_gadget, @arnoldaranez

Image by: Cheryl Lin: @busichic

Featured: David Krupp: @davekrupp, Eden Riley: @edenland, Nuffnang Australia: @nuffnangau

Article by: Lou Pardi: @loupardi, @smkapac