WebRelevance Will Provide Contextual Advertising for MSNBC.com
MSNBC.com and MSN Shopping entered into a contextual advertising deal yesterday with software and services company WebRelevance Inc.According to WebRelevance, MSNBC.com and MSN Shopping will use WebRelevance technology to evaluate MSNBC.com stories on select portions of the site and serve targeted MSN Shopping ads on those pages.
Using its RelevanceServer platform, WebRelevance evaluates the context of Web pages, then delivers ads targeted at the page's content. For example, MSNBC.com customers reading an article about a recent software virus would see ads for anti-virus software.
"Why show a customer an ad for life insurance when they are showing interest in a Pocket PC?" said Bill Reller, co-founder and president/CEO of Seattle-based WebRelevance.
Scott Moore, president of MSNBC.com, said the deal improves both the online experience for site visitors and promotional opportunities for advertisers.
