EIM cuts price of online advertising on portals by up to 50 per cent

All the existing banner ads under EIM's Net@ads brand, which runs the online advertising for the Albahhar (www.albahhar.com) and eim.ae (www.eim.ae) portal, have been significantly reduced in price. To further entice new advertisers to the site, innovative new 'enriched' advertisement designs have been developed at an equally competitive rate to engage users and advertisers alike.

The new pricing model, implemented to give companies freedom in how they plan and pay for their advertisements, allows for fixed monthly payments. Advertisers now have the choice of using either the existing payment model of a fixed sum per 1,000 page views, or opting for the new monthly payment.

'Our bi-lingual Arabic and English Portal receives over 1,250,000 individual visits every month from around the region,' commented Abdulla Hashim, Acting General Manager, EIM. 'By reducing our costs and introducing new designs and pricing options, we will be offering advertisers a highly competitive and innovative marketing solution to reach an educated audience with disposable income in several Markets around the Middle East.'

The new ad designs include interactive 'scratch' ads, where user can scratch away half the banner to reveal a new graphic. Other new designs include the 'expanding graphic', which allows users to hover over the ad to reveal more information; the 'scrolling slide show', where a series of images are shown in rotation; and the 'page crossing' images, which appear on the screen as the user visits a page and initially navigates around the screen without prompt from the user.

Finally, an 'expanding HTML' design allows an online form to drop down for completion. This can include online registration forms, payment forms and applications, which are then sent directly to the advertiser.

By using Net@ads, advertisers are also able to access Double Click technology, deployed by EIM in order to manage their online campaigns. Double Click gives companies a full report that breaks down number of visits, page views, click-through rate and other vital information needed for executing informed marketing decisions.

Furthermore, Double Click technology will allow advertisers to implement targeted campaigns based on demographics, including location, age, gender and income of portal visitors.

By advertising online, companies can target their audiences with a greater degree of accuracy. On the Albahhar portal, for example, advertisers can choose from a range of channels from business and technology, through to the children's site Alefon Kids or the sports pages.

'Online advertising has been attracting interest from companies since the birth of the Internet,' added Ashraf Gameel, Marketing Manager, Internet Applications. 'Companies see the advantages of their target audience having the immediate option to purchase the goods online or automatically receive more information on a product or product range. As consumers increasingly put their trust in online transactions, we expect to see this market take off.'