A growing number of international media brands have recognized the potential of advertising images presented as content to further monetise their websites.

Visual Search and Browse company PIXSTA has revealed that eight media brands have joined its content network since May, bringing the total to 19. PIXSTA’s media partners now span five territories: UK, Germany, France, Greece and the USA.

The list of media brands currently hosting PIXSTA AdImages™ are:

·         UK: Cosmopolitan, Telegraph, The Independent, Handbag, News International’s Fabulous, and Shiny Media’s Shoewawa and TheBagLady

·         Germany: Gala, InTouch, WomenWeb, Agenti.de, RTL2.de

·         France: Gala, Femme Actuelle

·         Greece: Glamour, Lucky, Myself

·         USA: Shoetube, Shoewawa US, and TheBagLady US

Natalia Lorentziadi of Greek publisher Liberis – which publishes the three Greek titles Glamour, Lucky and Myself featuring PIXSTA – said: “PIXSTA is already the 4th most popular page on our websites, and its popularity rises month by month.  In terms of monetisation, the PIXSTA page delivers an effective CPM rate of €56 across the Liberis Group, with some PIXSTA pages delivering €65.  This makes PIXSTA one of the most promising elements of our web offering,” she added.

Alexander Straub, PIXSTA’s CEO, said: “PIXSTA enables media brands to monetise their sites by serving up advertising images that are presented to users as valuable content. It also provides an extra layer of interactivity, making sites more engaging and ‘sticky’.”

PIXSTA AdImages™ works by presenting a selection of images – PIXSTA AdImages™ – which can then be browsed at will by the website user. A simple click on a product image returns a new selection of items similar by shape, colour or texture.  When the user finds a product they want to buy, he/she clicks on the adjacent ‘shop’ icon and is taken to the appropriate product landing page.  The media brands that leverage PIXSTA’s AdImages™ Network deliver large, receptive and – in the case of specialised media such as Shoewawa (shoes) and TheBagLady (handbags/purses) - fully ‘product-specific’ audiences.

Karen Millen is just one of the 93 retailers that now use PIXSTA’s AdImages™ network.  Emma Bott, e-commerce manager for the fashion company, said: “Pixsta offers an innovative and highly targeted means of reaching a new customer base.  The concept of browsing for garments visually, rather than being dependent on keywords or descriptions defined by the retailer, is far closer to the in-store shopping experience.  The shopper is able to view and compare a selection of products based on their own criteria at one glance, thus the quality of the click-through is greatly improved.”