We’ve heard for years that online advertising generally isn’t credible, is an annoyance, and that people are becoming adept at ignoring it. The ideal, we’ve heard (and, admittedly, preached) is to engage people in conversations about your company.
Largely, I’d say that the reason for this is that advertisers are treating online advertising as they would print advertising, very little difference in format, except that it clicks through to a landing page.
IBM is doing something interesting with their online advertising though, which I thought would be useful to model if you’re handling the advertising for a large company that often appears in the press: they’re combining the credibility of PR with the control that advertising offers.
As you can see in the ad below (from the NYT online), the advert basically aggregates some recent articles about IBM:
This innovative ad format takes PR and recycles it into a paid advertising that is quite effective. However it competes with more current editorial a reader is likely visiting the site to consume.
Like similar programs from Google, efforts like these unlock the hidden value in thousands of articles deep inside archives. It takes what’s old and makes it monetizable.
Essentially they’re turning archived content into a form of advertising that’s more credible than static, generally poor-performing banners.
(via)
Hey dave, interesting stuff, unfortunately the advert isn’t displaying in the post above…
Thanks for the headsup Nic. It does display, but it takes a while. My web host has blocked pic uploads to the server, so I used an external pic hosting service. Next time I’ll use Zoopy;)
What I find fascinating is the use of archives as a sponsored link. Opens up a whole host of possibilities….
Yo Dave! This is such a cool idea! Definitely something worthwhile looking at.
Nice find dude!
Thanks Mr. Stii. A little present for the good folks over at the ‘Gator:)
Geez, dude, you know me too well already!
Always searching for articles that can help me. Thank you