Group Nine launches ‘Sparkle Ads’ test for ecommerce brands on the Sparkle platform

Group Nine announced Friday it is launching Sparkle Ads, a custom, rich media, ecommerce ad product. The format builds on the capabilities of the Sparkle platform — a mobile-first publishing platform geared toward creating commerce experiences across retailer sites. Group Nine gained the Sparkle platform with the acquisition of POPSUGAR in October.

Why we care

Sparkle Ads is the latest in a trend to ease mobile shopping and support vendor programs as marketers look for new ways to shorten the gap between product discovery and purchase. With Sparkle Ads, brands can create shoppable ads that feature the products they sell on Amazon and Walmart. Media companies, social and marketplace platforms have been rapidly developing shoppable media formats and on-platform checkout to attract commerce marketing budgets.

Campbell’s and a global cleaning brand will be the first to test Sparkle Ads on POPSUGAR’s website. The company plans to make the ads available across other Group Nine’s other media brands: The Dodo, Thrillist, NowThis and Seeker.

More on the news

• The Sparkle allows brands to facilitate commerce across multiple retailer sites and allows retailers to create customized pages featuring multiple product SKUs and collect purchase intent data.
• Advertisers will eventually be able to run campaigns across other publishers’ websites and the extended list of retailers Group Nine has partnerships with (Walmart, Amazon, Kohl’s, The Gap, etc.).
• Group Nine touts itself as the leading mobile video publisher in the U.S. based on a July, 2019 report from Nielsen and says it reaches 70% of 20- to 29-year-old Americans every month.

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