14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has signed an agreement regarding online advertising with Rodale, the owner of Men's Health, Women's Health and Runners' World. The Redmond company will provide custom advertising for the entire series of the lifestyle, fitness and wellness e-publications.
Microsoft is the exclusive partner that provides, along with Rodale's own advertising collaborators, ads that should make the most of the editorial content. When, say, an article tells about the opening of the skiing season, the ads should also have at least a slight connection with the sports equipment or maybe deal with the weather forecast for the following days.
This is what Microsoft, via the tools provided by its adCenter and Advertising, plans to do for Rodale. The contextual paid advertising has been a matter of vital importance for Microsoft since 2006, when it started its evolution on the market. The recipe of success might be the esteem of every partner and the fact that there is a marked attempt to cover all the areas of interest.
"'The inclusion of Rodale in our lineup of syndicated advertising partners is a strong indicator that we're continuing to gain significant traction with our advertising platform and further complements our vertical expertise in health, finance, travel, autos and entertainment," said Scott Howe, vice president of the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft, when queried about the new business.
Rodale's representatives also see the agreement as an opportunity to offer a more appealing content to the users of their websites. ''Combining Microsoft's contextual advertising and paid search advertising capabilities with our compelling content will provide additional value to our visitors by ensuring the advertising they see is aligned with their interests,'' said Daniele Campbell, associate vice president in Interactive Marketing at Rodale.
Even more, the company's website also displays some stats for the first quarter of 2008, and they clearly show an increase of revenue from all online activities by 11.6% over the same period in 2007. The agreement signed with Microsoft can only uprise the business.
The decision of the Redmond company of expanding its advertising market is currently taken within a controversial context. At the moment, Yahoo! and Google are waiting for the Justice Department's decision regarding their agreement in the same field of online contextualized advertising.