With an eye to offering more interactive programs to its advertisers, St. Joseph Media has announced a new partnership with the Toronto-based startup ChickAdvisor.
The media company will tap into ChickAdvisor’s database of over 60,000 consumer reviews to create community-driven advertorials, according to Ken Hunt, president of digital at St. Joseph Media. Hunt said access to content created by consumers will help expand the company’s advertising suite beyond traditional display ads.
“A potential advertiser launching a new product could, in addition to raising awareness through display media, also have that product reviewed, measure how many people are responding to reviews in real time and get feedback from actual customers,” he said.
In turn, St. Joseph Media will offer ChickAdvisor a large, national audience of potential new members. ChickAdvisor CEO Alex de Bold said each company brings its own strength to the deal. “We’re really excited about this partnership because it represents the future of integrated native advertising,” he said.
Hunt said community engagement is becoming more important to the company’s advertising partners, who are consistently asking for ways to communicate directly with consumers and collect feedback from them.
He declined to comment on the financial details of the arrangement except to say that the partnership was not an acquisition. St. Joseph Media is also partnering with several other startups, including Loose Button, a trial service that sends sample size beauty products to consumers, and the online retailers Eluxe, which currently has a partnership with St. Joseph Media’s FashionMagazine.com.
“We’re working with a lot of startups,” Hunt said. “We’re expanding our innovation strategy, and a key part of that is finding young, innovative companies that could benefit from the scale of our audience and where we could benefit from the innovation they bring to the table.”
