News

Local.com releases local rich-media ad platform

September 19, 2011

Local.com Corp., an online local media company, has released what it claims is the industry's first rich-media ad platform to incorporate dynamic, in-store product inventory availability and current pricing data for products sold by local retailers.

Rovion, a division of Local.com, has integrated this unique solution into the Rovion Ad Management Platform (RAMP). RAMP is initially being offered on a limited basis to select multi-channel retailers, consumer brands, agencies and publishers and will be rolled out later this year.

The Web-based RAMP platform:

• Allows clients to easily create, serve and track dynamic, original rich media ad units that incorporate local product and shopping data, without time-consuming and complex coding requirements
• Includes dynamic information on pricing, retailer sales, product details, store locations and near-real-time in-stock availability powered by Krillion

To date, more than 100 million impressions have been served by RAMP, according to the company. The platform generates revenue on a CPM basis when participating agencies', brands' and publishers' ads are served.

According to Borrell Associates, local rich media display advertising now represents approximately 10 percent of the total local online advertising landscape. Rich media display advertising is expected to grow to $5.1 billion, or 37 percent of all banner advertising by 2016.

"RAMP combines Rovion's rich media advertising platform with the availability of Krillion's local shopping data to provide a truly unique, local display ad unit," said Michael Sawtell, Local.com chief operating officer. "RAMP enables any company to create sophisticated rich media ads that incorporate dynamic local product data within a platform that requires no technical proficiencies. We believe this combination will prove to be valuable to a wide range of multi-channel retailers, consumer brands, agencies and publishers looking to drive better performance from their local online advertising spend."

Krillion's localized shopping data adds local relevance at the product level, increasing the targeting capabilities of rich media ads so that national campaigns can reach Web-influenced local shoppers across the U.S. Today, the growing Krillion local search index includes more than 1,200 brands from more than 60,000 retail locations.