OneSpot raises $1.5 million to redefine Web banner advertising using rich-media and social

The world of advertising is constantly searching for new ways to reach consumers. One of the well-used mediums has been banner advertising — you know, those things that pop up every once in a while that people often ignore? Some have called them the “brand awareness Black Hole” and advertisers are scrambling to find new ways to compensate for their ineffectiveness. But while the medium may be taking a shellacking, OneSpot is hoping to bring banners back — this time with a social twist, and investors have given $1.5 million to support it.

Today, the content advertising company raised funds from RSL Venture Partners, 500 Startups, Ralph Mack, Mike Maples, Sr., Josh Baer, and others to help pursue its vision of transforming content on websites into display ads that will be targeted towards specific consumers and help drive increased click-throughs.

If OneSpot sounds familiar, then you aren’t mistaken. In a previous life, the company raised $4.2 million in funding for a system to find top stories for specific topics based on linking patterns. Unfortunately that didn’t work out and it had to rethink things. What is being funded now is the reincarnation of the company, but with a different goal in mind.

With OneSpot 2.0 (if you will), advertisers can create contextual banner ads simply by taking the web address and dropping it into the ad dashboard. It will extract the content from there, along with images and create a simple ad that can be A/B tested before being shared to the 20 exchanges the service has partnered with, including Google and Microsoft — making up 400,000 impressions accessed per second.

A bookmarklet feature is also available that allows advertisers to create ads without needing the dashboard. All a user needs to do is go to a page, click on the bookmarklet and it will do all the rest. All ads have Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons on them to help with the virality.

Other features that come with the platform include:

• Ability for advertisers to add their own tracking code to measure performance, engagement, and leads
• Dynamic targeting
• Network integration
• Retargeting capability
• Geotargeting
• Real-time visibility into content marketing campaign success through measurement of audience development and engagement levels

So far, companies have jumped on board to use the service, including Home Depot, Remmington, Dell, General Mills, Vonage, Spectrum Brands and more. OneSpot will monetize the service by taking a percentage of the ad spend, but that will vary by client. While currently only supporting display ads, the company says that other advertising channels like mobile and social will be supported “shortly”.

Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images