Asda is now selling advertising space on three of its websites to brands in non-competing sectors, such as car manufacturers and hotel chains, as the retailer sets its sights on becoming a “credible publisher” with a website selling banners.
The retailer has started by selling display and video ads on its storelocator site, Price Guarantee comparison site and on Asda Direct- and in the coming months Asda will also be selling advertising space on its grocery site.
Speaking to The Drum, Dom Burch, a senior director at Asda, said: “we can do what an Express, or Guardian, or Telegraph group can do in terms of selling audience and we’ll get a bigger audience.
“What we’ll be able to see over the next few months is which advertisers are highest performing and that will allow us to potentially go into private deals with them on the grocery site.”
This is the retailer’s first step in its mission to set up a private advert exchange by 2016, which would allow it to participate in a real-time, auction-based advertising market and do away with third party advertising networks. Currently, Asda is selling the advert space through a server from Google and a platform from Rubicon.
In the first few hours since launching the service, Asda sold around 200,000 advert impressions, which are the number of times an advert loads for a user. Competitors such as Amazon and Tesco have been blocked from buying ad space.
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