Brands and Bloggers Mingle at BlogHer

While BlogHer attracts more than so-called "mommy bloggers" (a term uniformly disliked by moms who blog, by the way), its sixth annual conference, taking place next week in New York, has attracted a slew of high-profile brand sponsors.

P&G, PepsiCo, Hillshire Farm/Jimmy Dean, and Walmart are among the brand marketers paying for exposure as BlogHer 2010 Diamond Sponsors.

BlogHer reaches more than 20 million women each month. Its goal is simple.

To "create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment.”

“BlogHer is the leading conference for online female influencers and serves as a unique opportunity to engage face-to-face with virtually all of the top female bloggers, the voices that are driving the conversation and shaping the social media landscape,” says Laston Charriez, Sara Lee's VP of consumer and shopper activation in North America.

PepsiCo's outreach to the women attending BlogHer next week will go beyond sample products to articulating the brand's vision for a better society. Tropicana, Quaker, Propel and Gatorade will be on hand to create experiential brand opportunities on-site.

“We recognize women as the 5G Network, a powerful group of professionals, moms and daughters who are not only driving business results—at PepsiCo and elsewhere—but who also are driving social change, as they have throughout history,” said PepsiCo communications chief Julie Hamp.

Walmart, meanwhile, is creating an on-site garden and soliciting customer-driven ideas on how to create a greener home. GM/Chevrolet, Liberty Mutual Insurance and Ubisoft will also be present on the conference floor.

“It is extremely gratifying to see the conference grow, and to see an equal increase in the number of organizations who want to support women who blog,” says Jory Des Jardins, Co-founder and President, Strategic Alliances.

The BlogHer conference has tripled in size since 2007, adding one thousand attendees since 2009 and a list of 100 sponsoring brands. Strategic partners include NBC Universal's iVillage, while its backers include Venrock, NBCU's Peacock Equity Fund, and Azure Capital Partners.