Let’s see more of this: News display ads that matter

The Seattle Times website, 100% relevant

There’s something so refreshing about seeing a takeover ad on a news site on and about a milestone that actually matters to the city — the 150th anniversary of Seattle’s University of Washington.

Just when you think all lucrative news site display ads are distracting, pitchy, uncaring and even demeaning (“Lakewood Mom makes Botox Doctors furious!”), there’s this — advertising actually in sync with what readers care about. The whole city is talking about the University of Washington’s 150th anniversary (#UW150). It’s even commemorated on Bing’s home page today.

I know it’s weird to think of news and ads coming together, but this feels… right.

It’s up to newsrooms to raise the bar for content that matters. Maybe sales teams can do more of the same.

http://paulbalcerak.com/ Paul Balcerak

I totally agree, but the tricky thing is that not everyone (and not even the Seattle Times) has the luxury of picking relevance over profit.

In this case, though, it appears the money, timing and relevance all came together at once, and it looks great.

(By the way, I could swear I’ve seen a whole bunch of Seahawks takeover ads like this on seattlepi.com.)
moniguzman

Yeah, Seattlepi.com has, at least from appearance, more takeover ads more often than other local news sites. I know takeover ads are lucrative, so it’s a sign that money’s being made. Agree that it’s tough to get relevance very often in news. But it’s so nice to see, I wonder if the industry couldn’t push for it just a little harder, see if we can surprise ourselves…