ROS(Run-of-site) ad placements can be hard for interactive marketers to resist. Offered by most site publishers, these buys are widely available and provide access to a broad audience of Internet users. Because they usually involve remnant site inventory, they’re also highly cost effective and can stretch an online ad budget far beyond expected means. All of this has led ROS buys to become a mainstay of many online ad campaigns.
If you think ROS is a risk-free advertising option, however, think again.
Last week, the New York Post ran a lead news story about the terrible sexual assault and murder of a female graduate student. The article appeared on its Web site as well. As reported “in an online marketing publication the next day”:http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=40713&Nid=18919&p=181626, the story was accompanied online by the most inappropriate ad imaginable: a banner for online dating service True.com that featured a woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to the murder victim.
According to reports, the ad had been on a run-of-site rotation.
Month: March 2006
ad:tech is bringing a great roster of speakers – many from the US but a few Canucks as well – to the Toronto stop on the ad:tech Impact tour this Thursday. UPDATE: We’ve corrected the day of the event (Thursday not Tuesday) and we’ve added a special One Degree Reader discount of $195. Read on for details…
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