LONDON: Trinity Mirror, the UK newspaper group, is looking to bolster its digital ad offer to brands by running a new interactive ad format on the online Daily Mirror.
Speaking to The Drum a few days before the company announced its half-year results, Trinity Mirror strategy director Piers North said it is experimenting with an ad format which asks users to interact with brand messages mid-way through an article.
Developed by ad tech firm Rezonence, the new "FreeWall" service will allow Daily Mirror readers to continue reading the rest of the article free of charge only if they have engaged with the brand message.
Tim Greatrex, the founder director at Rezonence, said the aim is to serve each Mirror reader with one FreeWall ad unit per month in return for free access to all other content.
If it is successful at boosting advertising yield, then Trinity Mirror may explore the option of serving no other ads, but that depends on whether or not it can scale the FreeWall offering, North explained.
The company also wants to make better use of its mobile inventory and the development, he said, signals its bid to move towards a "cost per engagement" pricing model for its advertising inventory as opposed to CPM, or cost per thousand ads served.
The publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror also owns more than 200 local newspapers, such as the Liverpool Echo and Birmingham Mail, and is reported to have an audience of 25 million readers.
Earlier this week, the company reported first-half revenues of £288.5m with print advertising revenue falling 19% to £87.7m, Campaign reported. However, digital ad revenue increased by 25.8% year-on-year to £16.6m.
Speaking to The Drum a few days before the company announced its half-year results, Trinity Mirror strategy director Piers North said it is experimenting with an ad format which asks users to interact with brand messages mid-way through an article.
Developed by ad tech firm Rezonence, the new "FreeWall" service will allow Daily Mirror readers to continue reading the rest of the article free of charge only if they have engaged with the brand message.
Tim Greatrex, the founder director at Rezonence, said the aim is to serve each Mirror reader with one FreeWall ad unit per month in return for free access to all other content.
If it is successful at boosting advertising yield, then Trinity Mirror may explore the option of serving no other ads, but that depends on whether or not it can scale the FreeWall offering, North explained.
The company also wants to make better use of its mobile inventory and the development, he said, signals its bid to move towards a "cost per engagement" pricing model for its advertising inventory as opposed to CPM, or cost per thousand ads served.
The publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror also owns more than 200 local newspapers, such as the Liverpool Echo and Birmingham Mail, and is reported to have an audience of 25 million readers.
Earlier this week, the company reported first-half revenues of £288.5m with print advertising revenue falling 19% to £87.7m, Campaign reported. However, digital ad revenue increased by 25.8% year-on-year to £16.6m.
Data sourced from The Drum, Campaign; additional content by Warc staff
