Overture Signs Raft Of Contextual Advertising Deals
Pay per performance search firm Overture has signed new contextual advertising deals with Guardian Newspapers, the Financial Times and Independent News and Media.
The Yahoo! backed company said the deal will see it provide contextual advertising on all channels of www.guardian.co.uk and www.observer.co.uk. Previously it had only displayed listing on the Travel and Money channels.
The deal with the Financial Times will see content match results appear on a number of areas on www.FT.com, including the Market and Funds Data section. Overture will also provide listings to the Sports, Enjoyment and Job sections of Independent News and Media’s www.independent.co.uk site, as well as selected areas of www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
Commenting on the deal, Martin Child, managing director of Overture Northern Europe, said: “We are proud to have partnered with such quality brands in the publishing sector. Through expanded content matching, Guardian Unlimited, Observer.co.uk, FT.com and Independent.co.uk users will have access to a greater range of relevant results.”
Adam Freeman, Guardian Unlimited’s head of commercial development, added: “Guardian Unlimited’s new deal with Overture is further proof of how well this form of advertising works for online newspaper users. Its relevancy and non-intrusive format has been extremely successful for us across our travel and money sites, and so this roll out right across our network is an excellent step forward for contextual online advertising.”
Paid-for-search listings now account for well over 36% of the total online advertising market and the Internet Advertising Bureau expects growth to continue throughout 2004 as an increasing number of marketers realise the potential of the internet as a direct marketing medium (see Espotting Bolsters Management Team With Marketing Role).
The rapid expansion of the sector recently prompted Overture to bolster its sales operation with the appointment of Richard Firminger as sales director with responsibility for accelerating growth and service levels across the company (see Overture Boosts Growth With New Sales Director).
Overture: 0207 071 3510 www.uk.overture.com
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