California-based Brand Affinity Technologies, which specializes in bringing athlete and celebrity endorsements to the Web, has struck a limited exclusive deal to provide its advertiser-clients with access to Getty Images editorial image collection.
The online BAT platform allows advertisers to identify the most appropriate celebrity talent and launch endorsement ad campaigns on the Web. This process now takes days or weeks, which BAT says is a departure from the traditional offline process that used to take six months.
The BAT roster currently includes over 1,400 athletes and celebrities, with athletes representing every major U.S. professional sport. To help advertisers determine the best match, BAT offers Affinity Ratings, which analyze performance and consumer associations nationwide.
For Getty, the BAT platform is a new avenue through which to supply advertisers with imagery. Founded in 2007, the platform only recently emerged from beta and says it can deliver an average of 13.5 times advertisers’ typical conversion rates—and 3.5 times the typical clickthrough rates. BAT also said an independent study concluded that BAT-enabled ads had significant branding benefits, such as 180% increase in brand awareness and a 27 % increase in purchasing intent.