RSS Provides Micromarketing Opportunities for News Organizations

The BBC has announced an ambitious online campaign targeting US and Western European markets. The centerpiece of the campaign uses RSS ad units to contextually target news content to attract niche audiences to BBC.com. From Yahoo!/Adweek:

"The BBC plans to break a U.S. ad campaign next week that streams BBC.com headlines in ad units. The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds are targeted to specific media placements. For example, ad units running on entertainment sites would carry BBC lifestyle story headlines, while those on NYTimes.com and WashingtonPost.com will include political and world news."

Digital Media Europe reports that the use of RSS content reaches well beyond blogs and website content. BBC headlines will also be streamed through other media platforms including MSN Messenger and ICQ.

Another innovative dimension to the campaign is its dynamic nature. RSS headline content is time-targeted and content-weighted, as explained by DME's news story:

"Time-specific media targeting increases campaign efficiency by reaching viewers during mid-morning and lunchtime periods at work... In the event of a major international news story breaking, the campaign has been designed to up-weight its advertising. Agency Republic [BBC's lead agency] has created a 'News Flash Module' which enables the BBC to instantly update rich media overlay and standard banner advertising creative with bespoke messaging and imagery by utilising integrated Atlas Rich Media.

The BBC isn't the only news organization to use RSS ad units to attract niche audiences. The Yahoo!/Adweek story describes similar efforts underway at CNN and Reuters:

"CNN put RSS in ad units to promote its free Web video service launch in June... Reuters has worked with NASDAQ and Coca-Cola for campaigns that package RSS feeds of its news stories into ad units tailored for those brands' audiences. NASDAQ's ads, for instance, carry finance and business news headlines... Reuters helped create banner ads for Diet Coke that display a real-time customized feed of "feel-good" stories selected by a Reuters editor. Clicking on the headlines takes users to an article page in a branded Diet Coke area on Reuters.com. They can also receive the RSS feed on their cell phones or add it to their feed reader, and the Diet Coke-branded feed has even run on the Reuters sign in Times Square."

Steve Rubel has posted some related examples of RSS applications in mainstream advertising in yesterday's WebProNews.com.

Tags: marketing rss advertising