The concept of building a brand is far from new. Long since established as a mechanism for building loyalty among consumers, brand advertising has and continues to appear in nearly every type of marketing medium and the Internet is no exception. With the birth of the virtual marketplace, producers of goods and services have hungrily eyed the Internet as a ripe opportunity for new revenue. As a result, marketers have attempted to transfer the benefits of existing brand awareness to this new and interactive medium.

A number of marketing models are being used to create brand awareness on the Internet, but there are two of primary interest: Site Branding and Co-Branding. Below is a brief description of each followed by a more in-depth example of how each model is being applied.

Site Branding

Similar to classic sponsorship (i.e., web banners), site branding builds on the relationship between the web publisher and the sponsor. Unlike classic sponsorship however, site branding integrates advertisements with actual content -- allowing the viewer to receive the marketing message at the same time that they view the content. One prime example of this can be found at iVillage .

iVillage is the creator of sites such as Parent Soup, About Work and Vices & Virtues. The company objective is to develop on-line communities that allow people to communicate, collect and exchange information about real life issues through their web sites, chat and message boards. They support two environments through which they reach their communities and sponsors: an area on America OnLine and a separate iVillage web site. In exchange for sponsorship dollars, iVillage offers two advertising channels for their sponsors to reach their communities: the ubiquitous banners that link directly to the sponsor’s web site, and what iVillage refers to as bridge sites.

A bridge site is a mini-site, that can consist of anything from one page to hundreds of pages, built within the iVillage channel in conjunction with a specific sponsor. Content for the bridge site is developed by team members from both iVillage and the sponsor, and typically contains relevant information for the various iVillage communities. iVillage also provides services to coordinate public relations efforts to promote the sponsor’s brand and iVillage to the consumer and the trade press.

Co-branding

Taking the site branding concept a step further, co-branding involves the joint promotion of two companies and shared ad revenue. A good example of this can be found at the Delta Airlines site where Delta and The Weather Channel have formed a partnership whereby visitors to the website can check out the weather at their point of destination. This union helps to provide a value-added service to Delta clientele.