Local news aggregator, Topix.net, and ShopLocal.com have teamed up to offer a way for big and small brands to advertise to specific localities online using a ZIP code-based system.
“Really, any nationwide retailer that’s localized…this type of ad unit is a great fit for them,” said Mike Markson, VP of Business Development at Topix. He added that advertisers can utilize this new ad system to “pinpoint local ad impressions” through the use of geo-targeted CPM-based advertisements which will display offers from store circulars on fitting pages on Topix.net.
Markson also sees content sites as the higher and better route to delivering local ads for brands compared to search advertising. “Who goes to a search engine to find out where they can get the best deal in their neighborhood on Diet Coke? No one...” he said.
Walgreens is the first advertiser to sign up for the localized ad system. So, if a user of Topix.net searches for news in their location (by city or ZIP code), they will not only see a listing of local news, but an ad banner on the right side of the page that lists this week’s sales at the Walgreens location in that area.
This is already a step ahead of conducting a search for products and sales for a specific location through search engines. Even queries on Google Local will bring up results that are unrelated to current sales.
With ShopLocal’s SmartMedia system, advertisers will be able to create their own localized ads and customize their local deployments.
“For years, ShopLocal has been committed to helping retailers reach local audiences on the Web,” said Brian Hand, ShopLocal CEO. He added, “Now, through our SmartMedia technology and Topix.net’s ability to pinpoint local audiences, we’ve shrunk the Web down to size, allowing advertisers a simple way to market a very complex set of local offerings and increase their Web-to-store sales.”
Reports have intimated that Google will be pursuing similar localized ad delivery through patented technology that would enable Google to target local ads to Wi-Fi users based on the location of their wireless access point.
This technology was patented by Google back in September of 2004, and would seem to fuse well with their plans on developing ad-supported Wi-Fi hotspots in major cities.
Sources:
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/
3619731
http://www.adotas.com/2006/07/shoplocal-
topixnet-team-for-zip-code-based-ad-system/
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