An intense competition is heating up to transform the world of sponsored content into a more programmatic buying experience. But in the race to win, the timing between the sellers and the buyers may be off, as publishers and tech companies are offering solutions — some of them very smart — that marketers might not be able to take full advantage of.
Time Inc. is the latest to enter the fray. It does so as it prepares to spin off from its parent later this year.
The company just launched a product called Watercooler Live. The platform turns real-time content from its own portfolio and from advertisers into dynamic microsites and ads for desktop, mobile and social channels.
The vertical micro-sites are not the main draw here. They’re more to assist in the curation, ad optimization and targeting process than to make a direct play for eyeballs.
Desktop ads will feature a mix of advertiser content, magazine editorial and brand creative in two standard expandable IAB units. These are dynamically optimized based on what’s trending in news and social channels. It extends the Amplify product Time Inc. launched last year.
The mobile and social ads, however, will position Time Inc. publishers like Southern Living and brand advertisers as equal partners in content. Such a juxtaposition, the company believes, will spur more people to interact with the sponsored content units. This will take the form of expanded Twitter “cards” and/or Apple iAds.
According to Adam Solomon, VP-digital ad products, what Time Inc. brings to the party here is data. “We know how to find people who would be attracted to that kind of [sponsored] content.”
Time Inc. is wisely attacking two problems that have dogged sponsored content and so-called native ads.
Read more here – Original Article: http://adage.com/article/steve-rubel/sponsored-content-solutions-buyers/242763/