Gawker Media, publisher of the famed Gawker, Defamer, Lifehacker and other blogs, has, over the years, experimented in various ways with generating advertising revenue. One of the tactics they put in place a while back was to forgo the use of ad networks to fill its unsold, remnant space and, instead, offer it to artists with its Gawker Artists programs.
Gawker Artists is a collection of Gawker-published artists who benefit from the wide reach of Gawker Media blogs, gaining awareness they’d otherwise have to pay for. You see, Gawker Media doesn’t charge for the ad space or for the artist’s appearance on in Gawker Artists website.
Writing on ClickZ, Zachary Rodger surmises the rotating appearance of very un-advertising like graphics in banner space normally occupied by ads might lessen the desensitization people have built up over time causing them to flat out ignore banner space.
It’s unclear whether or not the appearance of gawker Artists ads has, in fact, achieved any sort of heightened awareness but it’s sure nice to see a non-ad in an ad space once in a while
