Features

A new era of in text advertising is starting to come to fruition.

What if you could have your brand displayed next to a keyword of your choice on a publisher's website. Think paid for search meets digital video. It’s called in text advertising and 1 in 3 internet users are now exposed to it so it’s high time we leverage this for financial services.

How does it work?

At a very top level you decide which keywords fit your product; it could be ISA, SIPP or Commercial Property. You then purchase this keyword on a publisher’s website and whenever that word is published it is hyperlinked to your own video advert. The phrase “Emerging Markets” could launch a Fund Manager interview with tabs to click through to the website or download a factsheet.

Here is an example for Chrysler.

The in text advertising will normally be double underlined and either green or red, this separates it from a link to another page of the website. On mouse over a video ad is launched, this can have tabs, audio, video and interactivity. On mousing off the word or indeed the ad it will auto close in about 5 seconds so it’s quite harmless and unintrusive. A new medium = a new form of measurement.

For advertisers, in text provides an infinite inventory with CPC based cost effectiveness while providing publishers the opportunity to harness untapped revenue from their vast amount of content via premium video advertising with minimal risk. In text charges the advertiser only after the consumer has engaged and becomes interested in the brand. This type of charging structure is not seen anywhere else on the web.

In the US, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently provided an overview of the evolving online video advertising landscape, citing in text as one of three ways to deliver video advertising online. As the IAB outlined, in text has become a notable part of the video advertising landscape. Why? Because in text video advertising offers internet users the ability to interact with advertisements on their own terms by providing a user-initiated format which matches ads to relevant words and phrases within content.

Technology and the internet have changed the way consumers gather information, do business, shop, travel, and to an even larger extent, communicate with one another. The internet has changed the way we think about these activities so 2009 might be the year we think about changing the way we advertise online as the internet slowly but surely shifts from a push medium to a pull medium.

N.B. From a production point of view all ads are rich media and some publishers allow expandable formats like this advert for Apple. To find out more about harnessing this for your brand, drop us a line.