Mozilla announced in February that it would sell ad space in its popular Firefox browser through “Directory Tiles,” which would replace the nine blank tiles on the tab page with “pre-packaged content” for first time users.
“Directory Tiles will instead suggest pre-packaged content for first-time users,” explained Mozilla’s VP of Content Services, Darren Herman at the time. “Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, some will be popular websites in a given geographic location, and some will be sponsored content from hand-picked partners to help support Mozilla’s pursuit of our mission. The sponsored tiles will be clearly labeled as such, while still leading to content we think users will enjoy.”
On Thursday, Mozilla and Mindshare North America announced a partnership, which will see the agency network provide its clients with access to these ad spot in the browser. The first client to go live is CVS Health.
“We believe there is a huge gap in the marketplace around user participation in advertising: it’s non-existent at scale. We believe users will trust advertising if it’s transparent and they have control of their experience,” said Herman. “We built our own solution to show the world that putting the user first is possible and we will partner with different technology companies over the coming months to extend our principles beyond Firefox.”
“We are excited for CVS Health to be one of the first launch partners with Mozilla’s new content initiative. We are always looking for ways to be innovative, break through the clutter, and bring first-to-market opportunities to our brands,” said Marisa Skolnick, Associate Director, Mindshare North America. “Mozilla has given us that opportunity and allowed us to help ideate and take a first look into future concepts.”
GroupM, which is Mindshare’s parent company, will work with Mozilla to refine new ad products, and will provide “product advisory” through next year.
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