LONDON, England - (PromotionWorld) - October 28 - Vibrant Media, a pioneer in contextual keyword advertising, has evaluated customer results for its IntelliTXT(SM), its innovative online advertising product that enables publishers to monetize previously untapped content portions of their websites. By delivering sponsored links from within article-based content, IntelliTXT(SM) combines the power and relevance of contextual advertising with the market growth of pay-for-performance advertising. To date, the company's IntelliTXT(SM), introduced last April, has been adopted by more than 250 of the world's leading web publishers and advertising networks including The Motley Fool, Penton, IGN, Askmen.com, Entrepreneur, and CMP.
After six months of real-world experience with the company's newest contextual advertising technology, customer satisfaction is high. "IntelliTXT(SM) has demonstrated its value in a variety of web publishing and content-rich environments, creating new revenue sources without compromising existing ones," Vibrant Media CEO Doug Stevenson noted. "Contextual keyword advertising is growing rapidly alongside paid search. We deliver high relevance for the user and the publisher by constantly refining our patent pending technology algorithms." Stevenson added.
Before releasing IntelliTXT(SM), the company spent a year optimizing and refining the product, working closely with publishers and editors to ensure that it was used in the most appropriate sections of their websites. In addition, editors worked with readers to introduce the new advertising model and explain how the contextual keyword links work.
Completely user-activated, IntelliTXT (SM) underlines keywords in editorial content creating links to relevant ads. The links remain inactive until a user moves the cursor over a keyword and clicks on it.
"We were one of the early adopters of IntelliTXT. We decided to use this new ad format as a way of tapping into the growing CPC performance budgets, without compromising our CPM banner advertising. We found IntelliTXT simple to implement, the advertising relevant to our content, and overall a nice source of new revenue," said Bruce Jackson, Managing Director, The Motley Fool.
IntelliTXT offers web publishers access to the rapidly growing online advertising market without sacrificing existing advertising inventory. The product also benefits advertisers by enabling them to reach consumers earlier in the buying cycle by providing more relevant leads and a click-through rate equal to 24 times the rate of run-of-the-web banner ads (leading to greater ROI). IntelliTXT also has the ability to provide relevant links for up to five themes per page in comparison to other contextual keyword advertising that only allow one.
"IntelliTXT works because it is based on the concept that effective advertising should not be a diversion, but something users find relevant, timely and useful," said Doug Stevenson. "IntelliTXT enables web publishers to take advantage of their most important real estate -- the content itself -- where readers spend the bulk of their time. Advertisers get the benefits of exceptional targeting but with pay-for-performance pricing."
"IntelliTXT has been an interesting advertising model for our online presence. Its non-intrusive nature makes it a good solution for publishers, readers and advertisers. We need to maximize the commercial opportunities we have without alienating our customers and cannibalizing our existing advertising customer base. Our experience to date is that IntelliTXT does not detract from the integrity of the editorial content and maintains a high stand of user experience with business benefits to us as well," said Robert Brighouse, Managing Director, Computer Weekly.
Market Opportunity
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, online advertising revenues in the United States reached a record US$2.2 billion in Q4 2003 with total revenues for the year estimated at US$7.2 billion. "I'm not at all surprised at these revenue numbers," said Greg Stuart, president & CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, referring to the year-end revenue report. "Our medium is such that we should expect this positive performance. Based on sound business principles the industry has grown up and become a great competitive advantage for those marketers who have been paying attention."
About Vibrant Media
Founded by two former AOL online advertising executives, Vibrant Media already has a web publisher base of more than 150 leading sites and titles, and strategic relationships with leading technology vendors. The company is a pioneer in contextual keyword advertising, a new online advertising model that combines the power and relevance of contextual advertising with the market growth of pay-for-performance advertising. Vibrant Media's IntelliTXT is enabling more than 150 of the world's leading web publishers and ad networks to better monetize editorial content with a non-intrusive approach that has won praise from publishers and online readers alike. Partnering with leading search and advertising technology vendors, Vibrant Media offers online advertisers around the globe a new way to deliver tightly-targeted messages to website readers. Founded in 2000, and with offices in the United States and in Europe, the company has pending patents for both IntelliTXT and SmartAD(SM), one of the first products in the contextual advertising technology market. For more information, visit www.vibrantmedia.com.