Case Study: Vaseline and Contextual Advertising

NEW YORK, January 21, 2011 —(BRANDCHANNEL)—In-text advertising can be a balm to brands. So says Vibrant, a US-based specialist in premium contextual advertising solutions, that shared with us the results from a recent campaign with Vaseline.

The firm's recent online campaign for Unilever's Vaseline Intensive Rescue brand scored in five key metrics, according to Vibrant: brand awareness and favorability; message recall; purchase consideration and share of mind against other brands.

Creating interactive custom content where the target audience (women, in particular moms) would be browsing online (such as iVillage.com), Vibrant employed in-text advertising used a scrolling section below a Vaseline-sponsored video player, encouraging users to explore the full product range.

On-screen use of hyperlinked words like "skincare," "moisturizer" and "skin conditions" was quantitatively successful:

• Brand awareness – 59% uplift
• Brand favorability – 8.6% uplift
• Recall of brand message – 15% uplift
• Purchase consideration – 20% uplift
• Share of mind vs. competitors' brands – Ranked 1st

"Consumers respond well to in-text advertising as they can decide when they interact with the brand, how much information they want to receive - and initiate the communications themselves," says Vibrant co-founder and CEO Doug Stevenson.

A panel of 200 women, age 25-45, participated in the research conducted by Dynamic Logic. Split into two groups, 100 saw the in-text advertising and another 100 in a control group did not.

"The results of the survey have proven contextual advertising is effective across key marketing criteria," adds Stevenson.

About Vibrant
Vibrant (www.vibrantmedia.com) is the world leader in premium contextual technology aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. With over 6,000 premium publishers, reaching 207 million unique users per month (comScore, October 2010), Vibrant gives top brand marketers the opportunity to deliver highly targeted advertisements within premium Web content and offers publishers premium editorial tools to re-circulate users throughout their websites. Vibrant works with top brand advertisers such as Microsoft, Unilever, Warner Bros and AT&T. The company was founded in 2000 and has offices in London, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf. Vibrant's rapid growth has been recognized by the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 50 lists. In 2010, the company was named by Advertising Age as one of the "Best Places to Work in Marketing & Media." Vibrant Co-founder and CEO Doug Stevenson was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 for Metro New York. For more information, visit: www.vibrantmedia.com or www.hyperlinkevolved.com or www.facebook.com/vibrantmedia or twitter.com/vibrantmedia.