Start-up embeds Web photos with shopping links
NEW YORK -- Inspiration comes in many forms, and in the case of James Everingham, it appeared as a pair of knockoff Christian Dior shoes.
Everingham's vision ultimately became Pixazza, an online advertising start-up that converts photos on websites into interactive advertisements.
Mouse over an image, and tiny price tags appear over handbags, dresses and other items. Hover on top of one, and a balloon pops up with images and links to similar items you can buy online. Move your mouse away, and the balloon disappears.
Even Google is interested: The online advertising and search leader, through its new venture-capital fund, is among those that have recently invested a combined $5.8 million in the company.
Everingham came up with the idea after his wife spent hours figuring out what shoes "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker was wearing in a photo ($1,000 Christian Diors) and hours more looking for a similar, cheaper version.
When the shoes arrived in the mail, the two sifted through a number of blogs and spotted comments from consumers who also wanted to know where they could get celebrities' looks.
Everingham figured he hit on an online void. If all those people were spending that much time seeking out products they could buy, why not find a way to bring the products to them, without coming across as an obnoxious intrusion?
After all, ads work best when they don't resemble ads but rather a feature that helps shoppers find items they may already be interested in buying.
Pixazza was born out of that inspiration last August and has since added a number of website publishers, merchant advertisers and investors to its stable.
By working with the company, websites can earn money from the images they would have displayed anyhow. And while it introduces another type of advertising, Pixazza believes its flavor is different.
"Unlike other means of monetizing their sites, which come at the expense of the user's satisfaction, Pixazza increases the user's satisfaction while increasing (the site's) incremental revenue," Chief Executive Bob Lisbonne said.
