Many of us are familiar with the “Quaker Man” – the gentle smile and old-world attire of the Quaker brand logo. Quaker is a household name that’s been around for over 130 years and is one of the most popular brands in the world.

Quaker needed something to reinvigorate the product and get consumers excited about oatmeal again. Kevin Ryan, of iMedia Connection, gives Kontera and OMD (Quaker’s ad agency) kudos for taking oats to the next level, making them just a little bit sexier.

Click to view demo

In an ad shaped like the Quaker Oatmeal package, that included recommended recipes, Quaker succeeded in engaging with consumers for 12 seconds (!) while they review the content of the ad, achieving Click Through Rates as high as 15.6%. The Quaker In-Text Freedom Ads delivered the highest CTR across the entire campaign, across all other media types.

Pranav Pandit, Group Director of Digital Strategy at OMD, acknowledges the success of Kontera’s In-Text advertising solution in tying unique and engaging creative with relevant context to help users connect the dots from Quaker to a rich oatmeal experience.

In-Text advertising has always delivered performance because of its superior relevancy and unobtrusiveness – as the website visitor has to trigger the launch of the ad by hovering over the highlighted keyword in the text, and the ad is closely tied and extremely relevant to the content of the page and to the user intent behind it.

In the online advertising world, where banner ads are almost universally ignored by consumers, getting extremely low click through rates of 0.7%, In-Text ads, which are actively triggered by consumers, who want to engage with the content, deliver impressive average CTR of 10% and above. In an industry measured by advertisers on conversion and campaign ROI, and by publishers on the CPC paid for each of those clicks – high CTRs and user engagement mean big business all around.

Go on, awaken your sense with Quaker oats and take a look at the demo of the Quaker Freedom Ads.

Download the presentation given at the iMedia Brand Summit on the Quaker Case Study.

Check out more of our latest videos on YouTube

Freedom Ads offer Kontera’s large brand advertisers a unique way of capturing the consumers’ eye and imagination, while delivering record-high engagement, brand response rates, and CTRs.

Freedom Ad units are highly-relevant rich-media in-text ads that appear in the actual form of the product they advertise – thus bringing these products to life through an engaging out-of-the-box experience.

For example, when advertising its newest mobile phone and its video capabilities, Samsung chose to have the ad itself shaped like the actual mobile device, simulating its capability to stream live video coverage of the Winter Olympics. Consumers immediately experience the Samsung phone, its unique product design and video capabilities. The ad also conveys the Olympic experience and associates the Samsung brand with the Olympic spirit.

There are two types of Freedom Ads; the Product Freedom Unit, and the Brand Freedom Unit.

The Product Freedom Unit delivers an elegant, instantly recognizable visual depiction of the advertiser’s product, directly from within a highly relevant key phrase. Product Freedom units employ a clean design, and are ideal for product focused advertisers like Consumer Packaged Goods, Automotive, Apparel, Beauty, Consumer Electronics, and Retail.

The Brand Freedom Unit brings to life elements of the brand that are instantly recognizable, and it delivers a unique and holistic brand experience through tasteful interaction that engages, educates, and delights the consumer.

In a survey conducted among 15 brands and agency teams who launched campaigns using the new Freedom Ads, all of them replied that they would use the Freedom Unit again! This great advertiser reception is indicative of positive consumer results, and it is translating into a positive financial impact for Kontera’s publishers.

Other advertisers that have used the new Freedom Ads include FedEx, Adobe, the Republic of Ireland and Curel. See these campaigns and experience the Freedom Ads for yourself on our demonstration page.

You can also check out some of our additional Freedom Ads resources:

• The Official Kontera Press Release
• Freedom Ads Covered on MediaPost
• Download the PowerPoint presentation presented at iMedia Brand Summit
• See this and other Ad types in The Kontera Ad Gallery
• Watch the short video interview with Ammiel Kamon, Kontera’s EVP marketing, given at the iMedia Brand Summit about the future of in-text advertising

In order to keep this post concise, we had to narrow it down to 8 top products and services launched by Kontera that were focused on existing and prospective publisher base, so without further ado , here are the chronologically ordered top Kontera launches of 2008:

1. KnowledgeBase- Launched January 21- The KnowledgeBase surrounds a wide range of information about Kontera optimization, publisher payments, and technical issues. The KnowledgeBase was another move in our push to give Kontera publishers greater independence through accessibility to information. The knowledgebase proves very helpful and accommodates an impressive amount of publishers daily.
2. Publisher Center- Launched January 31- the Publisher Center offers Kontera partners a range of high end capabilities and control over ContentLink ads on their sites and their accounts. What’s even more exciting is the fact that the Publisher Center is continuously undergoing upgrades and updates since its initial launch. It will continue to improve in order to give Kontera publishers a greater control and more possibilities over their In-Text ads.
3. The Kontera Hybrid- Launched March 25- Kontera’s newest advertising solution, a completely customizable, In-Text media layer that simultaneously displays relevant content alongside advertisements. The Hybrid layer enhances a webpage by presenting links to related content, videos, and images alongside advertisements in one cohesive unit. The Kontera Hybrid is currently only available to select publishers.
4. Invite a Friend Program – Launched March 31- Through this program, publishers can send their friends an invite to join Kontera. For each friend who becomes an active member, you receive a $25 bonus award. The Invite a Friend program has been very successful in expanding the Kontera family and it will continue with us well into 2009.
5. New Plugins for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal – Launched throughout May – These plugins are an important milestone in our efforts to simplify ContentLink implementation for use on various platforms. The plugins allow the setup of ContentLink ads, without the complications of modifying your site’s code. Have a look at our WordPress plugin video tutorial.
6. Blogger Widget- Launched June 10- Much like the plugins mentioned above but even simpler, the Blogger widget allows you to implement ContentLink on Blogger blogs with just one click. Login to your Kontera account, click on the “Kontera It” button and the Kontera tag will be automatically added to your pages. Monetizing your blog has never been easier.
7. Kontera on Pluck-On-Demand partnership- Launched November 20- Through the partnership with Pluck, Kontera ContentLink ads are automatically generated within the Pluck-on- Demand content widget creating an additional revenue stream for publishers. Publishers get the whole package: free and relevant content populated with targeted ads.
8. Holiday ’09 Cash Bonus – Launched December 18- Our latest promotion, recently advertised and still going strong. If you are not yet a publisher, there’s no better time to join. Sign up with Kontera by Jan 15, 2009 and as soon as you reach $75 in earnings, we’ll round your balance up to $100. That’s an extra $25 on us!

Happy 2009!

We are excited to present our new blog face, refreshed and uplifted.

The Kontera blog has been up and running since June 22, 2007.  It hasn’t always been easy… but with much care and fun, we have proudly made it to POST 99!

And on this festive blog occasion, we’d like to remind you of posts that have gained more attention, and other posts that we really like… and you may have missed:

• Why Google Adsense and Kontera ContentLinks are a Perfect Combination

• 5 Things Kontera’s Top Earners Have In Common

• 3 Reasons Why Your SEO Efforts and ContentLink Optimization Go Hand in Hand

• The Comprehensive Kontera Guide for Payment Info

• Creating In-Text Relevance

• Video Tutorial- Setting Up the Kontera WordPress Plugin
  

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. You can read more about IAB and its mission here.

Kontera also meets the IAB guidelines for the most common current in-stream ad formats.

What does that mean, exactly?

Our relevancy engine is built to determine the true context of any webpage and to match it with the most relevant ads. This technology will now be utilized to serve contextually relevant information from Microsoft in ad units appearing on “LinkedIn Answers”.
LinkedIn users will be able to follow a related Microsoft ad in order to expand their search for answers on technology related questions.

How does it work?

Kontera’s engine analyzes LinkedIn answers page in real-time while matching it with related topics from Microsoft TechNet. Following, these topics are displayed on an ad unit, enabling users to find additional answers and information.

To see Kontera’s Microsoft implementation on LinkedIn, login to your LinkedIn account and click on the “Answers” tab. Within “Answers”, click on the ‘Technology’ link and then on the ‘Information Technology’ link.

Visit our website and find out more about the Kontera -Microsoft-LinkedIn collaboration and about Kontera’s Contextual Advertising Technology

What is the Kontera Hybrid?
Kontera Hybrid is a publisher tool designed to increase user involvement, engaging users where they are the most active – within the content. The Kontera Hybrid is a completely customizable, In-Text media layer that simultaneously displays relevant content alongside advertisements. The Hybrid layer enhances a webpage by presenting links to related content, videos, and images alongside advertisements in one cohesive unit. The Hybrid layer is launched upon a user mouse-over on a highlighted keyword within a webpage, thus increasing user engagement and site interaction.

How does the Kontera Hybrid Work?
Kontera´s patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms thoroughly analyze each webpage to determine its topic, extract relevant Keywords, and determine which other pages within the website are thematically related to it. This real-time analysis determines which Keywords within a page’s content will be highlighted and, upon user mouse-over, will launch the Hybrid layer. The system also simultaneously selects and adds links to related content to be featured within the Hybrid’s layer.

The Kontera Hybrid enables publishers to select the source of the articles displayed within the layer, either by re-directing users to other sections within the website or by providing links to related articles from other online sources. In other words, the Kontera Hybrid helps you direct traffic where you want it to go.

The Kontera Hybrid’s advanced capabilities and multi-faceted layer encourage greater user engagement rates with publishers’ ads and content, resulting in a 20% increase in page views among publishers benefitting from the Hybrid.

Publisher Benefits of the Kontera Hybrid:
• Enhanced user engagement
• Related articles and videos
• Increased page views per user
• A means to move traffic within your site/network
• Additional premium advertising inventory

When and where can I see the Kontera Hybrid in action?
The Kontera Hybrid was launched on Monday, March 17, 2008. To see the Hybrid in action please visit Men’s Fitness at www.mensfitness.com/fitness/ab_exercises/136

The Hybrid is currently available to select publishers, to be considered for the Hybrid, please email us at publishers@kontera.com

To learn more please visit our website Kontera Hybrid

Well, peeking is no longer necessary.

The Publisher Center is live and you can now login using your existing user and password.

Check out the graphic revenue displays, experiment with the Keyword Report, test the URL report, customize ContentLink Color, and look into our Knowledgebase for detailed information about using ContentLinks™.

What is really exciting is that all this is just the first stage in the improved Publisher Center. We are already working on additional features, all designed to give you better service, greater control and means to increase your contextual ad revenues.
So let us know what you think so far and which other features will help you.

We can’t wait to hear your feedback.

We are excited to tell you about the Publisher Center, with a brand new interface, turning ContentLink™ integration and tracking into a richer experience than before.

As we see it, it’s all a matter of flexibility and control. We aim to make ContentLinks flexible to your needs while granting you greater control over your preferences. The Publisher Center is a first step as we have many more new plans and developments in store.

The new Publisher Center, designed to make your ContentLink experience more accommodating than ever, includes enhanced reporting capabilities, graphic revenue displays, KnowledgeBase (FAQs), and much more.

From now on, you will be able to:

- View Performance Reports- run customized click and revenue reports, including graphs.

- Easily update your basic contact and your Account Information.

- Perform ContentLink Color Customization – You’ll be able to select the color of your Kontera link and test to see which color yields the highest revenues.

- Access Kontera’s knowledge Base- read expert advice on a variety of issues, such as optimizing Kontera’s code for different blogging/site management platforms, and more.

The Kontera Publisher Center is still in beta. As soon as testing is completed you will be able to access the new Publisher Center using your existing User Name and Password.

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome!