MarketWatch Rolls Out Site Enhancements, Branding Campaign

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By: Jay DeFoore MarketWatch has launched its first major enhancements since Dow Jones acquired the financial Web site from CBS last year. In addition to the rollout of new columns, podcasts, and stock-quote information, the site is also launching an online branding campaign.

MarketWatch launched its live stock quotes feature Tuesday on article pages, quote pages, and the My Portfolios area. The quotes automatically update stock-quote information without users having to refresh their browsers. The feature is the first of several applications that MarketWatch is developing using AJAX, a development technique for creating interactive Web applications using a combination of JavaScript and XML.

The four podcasts MarketWatch has launched recently include Morning Stock Talk, Stupid Investment of the Week, Personal MarketWatch, and Internet Daily.

As for the branding campaign, rich media ads emphasizing how the site helps consumers understand markets and make investing decisions will run until the end of the year on high-traffic search engines and financial Web sites including Yahoo!, Google, TheStreet.com, Motley Fool, Morningstar, Bloomberg, and Reuters, among others. Print ads with the same creative will appear in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and USA Today.

The ad can be viewed by clicking here.

In addition to the online ad campaign, MarketWatch also launched a ?Master of the Market? sweepstakes on Oct. 12. Participants can enter for the chance to win $25,000 to invest in the market. They also can visit MarketWatch daily during the sweepstakes for a chance to win a Palm handheld or a one-year subscription to The Wall Street Journal Online.

Separate ads promoting the sweepstakes also will run simultaneously on sites with those of the ?Pretty Darn Easy? campaign.

MarketWatch says its users are nearly 70% male, with an average household income of nearly $90,000. More than 40% are business decision makers or influencers and more than 11% are C-level executives, the company claims.

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