The number of niche media sites — whether mommy blogs or car discussion forums — is growing at a staggering rate. Until recently, a brand wanting to reach one of these communities had two choices: work with an ad network for immediate reach or individually with blogs using “sponsored-content” posts.
Two technology start-ups are aiming to make the connection easier.
PostRelease
While ad networks offer brands and bloggers the benefit of instant scale, brands are relegated to small, peripheral ad widgets. PostRelease gives brands the scale and ease of an ad network, with the relevancy and positioning of content. Big brands use PostRelease to publish sponsored posts instantly across thousands of placements — from small but revered mommy blogs to massive media networks and forums. And unlike “dropped-in” ad widgets, sponsored posts match the design of the existing site seamlessly. Currently PostRelease is the only company that places content inside forums as well as blogs and content sites.
Bloggers like PostRelease because they can still use their existing ad units. Brands like PostRelease because sponsored posts are contextually matched and get prime positioning, so campaign performance can be five to 10 times greater than through-ad units. Brands using PostRelease include Ford, Intuit and Clorox Corp.
BlogFrog
BlogFrog has tapped into the surging popularity of “mom blogs” by harmonizing content, community and advertising. Bloggers add a BlogFrog app to their existing publishing platform to create an insta-BlogFrog community. BlogFrog’s technology allows readers to ask questions, share photos and even participate in live chats and broadcasts — a much more versatile community tool for bloggers than Facebook and Twitter. The site has 125,000 active members and reaches 10 million parents per month, making it the largest mom-blogger network in the country.
For bloggers, BlogFrog amplifies conversation and increases revenues. For brands, BlogFrog’s more intuitive connection between content and conversation is already attracting big names like Proctor & Gamble and Kraft.
This article originally appeared in the May 2012 issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free print subscription.
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