Adauction.com to Launch Tune-In Auction Sept. 29

Moving to become a daily online advertising marketplace, Adauction.com said it will introduce a new auction called Tune-In that offers media buyers category- specific ad inventory in a variety of content areas.

Content offerings will include Internet portals, finance and investing, computers and women’s interests. The company also announced that Wired Digital will supply ad inventory from its navigation portal, HotBot, for the first Tune-In auction Sept. 29.

Providing a monthly calendar of the content categories that will be offered, Adauction.com will enable advertisers to plan farther in advance for opportunistic buys, the company said. Tune-In will initially take place once a week in October and twice a week in November and December before proceeding to a daily schedule in January 1999.

The new auction, which will run from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, also creates co- promotional opportunities for the company and its publishers, including sponsorships.

“Our plan has been to increase the frequency of our auctions since media buyers have been saying they want the convenience of regularly purchasing through an automated, online marketplace,” said David Wamsley, Adauction.com president and CEO. “With premium sites like HotBot participating, we expect to make buying through our channel a habit, while giving advertisers strong value on their investment.”

“Adauction.com is plowing new ground in the ad sales community, and we look forward to testing some of our own HotBot inventory within their new ad sales channels,” said Rick Boyce, Wired Digital’s senior vice president of advertising sales and commerce. “HotBot’s premium inventory–including key words–will be sold for higher CPMs than run-of-site ad impressions.

Once media buyers tune in to Adauction.com, they will be offered ActiveBid, a traditional-style auction where a minimum price is established, and buyers compete in real time until the highest bid wins; or CountDown, a drop-price format in which prices start at 10% off rate card, continue dropping an additional 10% off every six minutes.