InformationWeek Puts Web Widgets Inside Ads

InformationWeek, a  major tech trade publication, has launched an innovative advertising program for Microsoft using the Bitty Browser widget platform. The move is ingenious and indicative of how picture-in-picture marketing with widgets can work to everyone's benefit. You can spot the program on this story about Wikipedia.

The TechWeb Embedded Browser allows readers to peruse a sponsored section of the InformationWeek web site without having to leave the story page. The  Bitty Browser widget basically embeds a browsable micro site that features Microsoft SQL Server case studies (Microsoft is an Edelman client).

The program is totally breakthrough. The sponsor gets to communicate their message in an innovative way, the reader is spared the hassle of linking off to another page and InformationWeek can measure the effectiveness of the campaign. This is the first experiment I've seen where a media brand embedded a widget inside an ad but I expect we'll see many more examples in 2007.