Federated Media Blends Ads Into Content With Suite

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Federated Media Publishing introduced an ad product that automatically finds relevant content and includes a marketer's written or video content within the editorial well, using the same font and design elements.

Native Conversationalist Suite uses technology that FMP acquired from TextDigger in 2010 to automatically read all pages in the network, identifying not only topics but also sentiment and even slant connected with that topic. The company said that its conversation-targeted media has performed 49 percent higher in clickthrough rates than standard-placed media.

The first Native Conversationalist units ran in limited beta from March until June, and last month, they rolled out across the FMP network.

For example, Levi Strauss included a video promoting "Find Your Curve" into a post on Food Blogger on a Diet. The clickable banner appears below the "read more" link and opens into a two-minute video featuring another blogger talking about her busy life - and how much she likes her Levis. Absolut and Pepsi are also currently running these campaigns.

FMP operates networks of bloggers, as well as running turnkey publishing programs for brands, such as American Express OpenForum for small business owners.

"These are more socially active participants, authorities, passion-based publishers who have a following and know how to connect on the web. That's different from a writer generating an asset. We create the portfolio of authors we work with based on that social energy," said FMP CEO Deanna Brown.

Native Conversationalist Suite units are built in HTML5, so they render and behave as part of the page in mobile browsers and tablet, as well as on the desktop.

Brown said FMP plans to roll out new contextual targeting that will take into account not only topics and sentiment but also an individual user's mindset, for example, whether someone is just chatting or actually researching a purchase.

"We're poised to continue not just on the super high-end premium but also to be a dominant player on programmatic and exchange-based media, as well as premium programmatic, brand direct and private marketplace media," Brown said.

FMP achieved 65 percent audience growth year-over-year, according to comScore's June 2012 Media Metrix, expanding its audience size from 41.5 million to 63.6 million monthly unique visitors. It ranked eighteenth among comScore's top internet properties for the month.