AOL Launches Mandatory.com, a Site for Guys

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By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

In a fragmented world, the one who captures a niche audience will be successful. From segmenting a market according to industry to demographics, businesses must figure out what their key audience is going to be in order to fully satisfy certain needs and wants.

So, AOL is at it again to capture the male demographic. It has been announced that AOL has launched Mandatory.com, a site catered to the men in the world. Unlike its last effort of Asylum.com, AOL's team believes that Mandatory.com will survive and provide sought-after content. It has been built "from the ground up for brand advertisers," said the General Manager of AOL.com.

It looks like that AOL might be successful this time. It tapped Cory Jones, founding editor of HolyTaco.com, owned by Break Media, and also the former editorial director of Maxim.com. AOL also built the site with help from BermanBraun, the developer behind Wonderwall, an MSN-owned celebrity-focused site that, according to comScore, receives about 17 million unique visitors a month.

And finally, Mandatory.com got Gillette as its charter sponsor. Not a bad start.

Will Mandatory.com beat its predecessor, which is now Huffington Post's Weird News? Time will tell. With a solid sponsor like Gillette, Mandatory.com has a fighting chance. With a slick-looking interactive site and good content, it remains to be seen how man-centric brands will respond. As with any man-centered site, it contains funny videos, random facts, beer and food, sports, and plenty of videos of former playmates, runway videos of Kate Upton, and supermodel pictures.

According to the source, Mandatory.com will also offer brands "editorial galleries" and other features that brands can take advantage of the targeted audience.

It will be interesting to see what happens, but we send Mandatory.com the best of luck.

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About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

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