The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror are experimenting with technology that turns online photographs into adverts, reports the Financial Times. It's an e-commerce system developed by a Finnish company, Kiosked.
When people visit pages on the papers' websites, the technology scans the content and works out the most relevant advertisements to display. Then it overlays images of products that readers may wish to buy on the pictures.
The FT's digital media correspondent, Robert Cookson, gives an example from Thursday's football reports on Mirror.co.uk. The image of a Bayern Munich player was overlaid with a Kiosked module offering ways to buy a replica Bayern kit.
He quotes Kiosked's co-founder, Micke Paqvalén, as saying: "This is the next phase of e-commerce. It's a very powerful way for publishers to monetise their content."
Paqvalén said other groups - such as The Guardian, DMGT and the Huffington Post, plus the magazine publisher Gruner+Jahr - are also planning to experiment with the technology.
Evidently, the publishers do not plan to use Kiosked modules within their main news articles. They will be restricted to non-news sections, such as sport and entertainment.
Source: Financial Times
