WebRelevance Announces Contextual Advertising Alliance with MSNBC.com and MSN Shopping
WebRelevance introduces its advanced contextual targeting technology designed to improve Internet advertising performance for the number one news site and its advertisers
REDMOND, Wash. and SEATTLE (July 29, 2003) – Today, WebRelevance, Inc., a Seattle-based software and services company, and a pioneer in contextual advertising, announced an alliance with MSNBC.com and MSN Shopping to provide contextual advertising services.
“Contextual advertising” builds on the success of paid search, but WebRelevance takes the targeted advertisements well beyond the search pages. Using its RelevanceServer platform, WebRelevance evaluates the context of any Web page and then delivers advertisements targeted at the page’s content. For example, MSNBC.com customers reading an article about a recent software virus will see advertisements for anti-virus software, while users reading about Civil War history will see advertisements for books that document the Civil War.
Under the agreement, WebRelevance’s technology will evaluate MSNBC.com stories on select portions of the site and serve targeted MSN Shopping advertisements on those pages. “Why show a customer an ad for life insurance when they are showing interest in a Pocket PC?” said Bill Reller, co-founder, president and CEO of WebRelevance.
“Now, with the introduction of the RelevanceServer platform, media sites can increase revenue and advertisers will improve the ROI of their advertisements,” said Reller. “We are excited to be working with MSNBC and MSN Shopping, and are proud to have been selected by two of the industry’s leading organizations.”
“In order to lead in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet, it is our goal to provide MSNBC.com's audience with the most personalized and relevant experience,” said Scott Moore, president of MSNBC.com. “By utilizing WebRelevance's technology, we hope to further enrich the customer experience and significantly improve the promotional opportunities for our advertisers.”
About MSNBC.com
MSNBC.com is a leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet. MSNBC.com delivers the best of NBC News, MSNBC Cable, CNBC, NBC Sports, MSN, and Newsweek. MSNBC is a 24-hour cable and Internet joint venture of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) and NBC News (NYSE: GE - News).
About WebRelevance, Inc.
WebRelevance, Inc. is a software and services Company, and a pioneer in contextual advertising based in Seattle. The Company is focused on using keyword targeting to make dramatic improvements to current online advertising models. Further WebRelevance corporate information can be found at http://www.webrelevance.com.