Today we’re thrilled to announce that Intel will be the sponsor of our Technology section for the next few months.
This is the second branded section that we’ve launched – following our work with lululemon last month. In this case, Intel is sponsoring an existing section versus working with us to create an entirely new branded section. However, don’t worry: your technology news will continue to be the same great personalized content you’ve come to expect from Zite with one exception: a few carefully selected articles from Intel’s MyLifeScoop site will appear within Zite users’ Technology sections with the label “promoted.” This represents a continuation of the approach that we talked about with our lululemon section – and evolves the way brands can work with Zite.
We are being very careful about how brands participate within Zite:
- Relevant brands against relevant sections: We want to ensure that a brand sponsor is always highly relevant to the sponsored section. In the case of Technology, one of our most popular sections, Intel is one of the most highly respected technology brands in the market. Intel has been synonymous with technology innovation for several decades and the association feels natural. They also bring highly relevant content, through MyLifeScoop, which already often appears in Zite and now will help strengthen the section in general.
- Same great personalization throughout Zite: As we integrate brands, we will maintain the same Zite experience as you get in any of our sections. Whether branded or un-branded, pre-existing (e.g. Technology) or new, sections that incorporate brands will have the Zite algorithm working hard to ensure that you get the most personally relevant and appealing set of articles for you.
- Sensitive participation of brands: Finally we want to avoid bringing any form of heavy-handed advertising into the Zite experience. With Intel’s sponsorship of the Technology section, we’ll be indicating clearly whenever “promoted” content appears and Zite will continue to learn from your thumbs up/down ratings on this content. We’ll also continue to respect your choice to block sources when it comes to promoted content.
I saw Mark's interview on Inman Next and I had to check you guys out. Definitely leading the industry, kudos. You are now on my iPhone.