Hilton a Target for Network Ads


Perez Hilton rakes in nearly 16 million unique hits a week on his controversial celebrity blog, making him the most sought after ad spot for Blogads, the firm that brokers Hilton’s advertising deals. With this kind of traffic, Hilton’s blog is becoming a hot spot, attracting several large advertising deals with television stations hoping to tap into Hilton’s female 20 and 30 year-olds demographic.

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Larger networks have avoided advertising on Hilton’s blog in the past because of his unforgiving commentary and embarrassing celebrity images. It’s a risk to display ads next to this content. But marketers cannot deny the appeal of Perez Hilton to the masses, and unlike user-generated content on sites like MySpace or YouTube, even with Hilton’s commentary, marketers know what they’re going to get.

A company’s ad on MySpace or YouTube, on the other hand, could show beside an inappropriate video, and that company’s brand is now negatively affiliated with undesirable content.

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The reason advertisers are more willing to now work with Hilton is because they don’t expect to lose much control with their marketing campaigns.

The issue of advertisers’ control over their ads on other people’s sites will be an increasingly important issues as user-generated content continues to grow and merge with other media platforms. A system will need to be put into place for a market to be created around the impending meeting of advertisers and college students with a camcorder.