Sponsor advertising opportunities

[anekola]

I'll be adding a few images of suggestions below. But a few things to consider:

• How will this be maintained on the backend?
  • Will the sponsor be random on posts, or would you like to assign a specific sponsor to a post/session? If not random, this would need a widget on the post admin page and/or a field on the session spreadsheet.
  • When you get a new sponsor, should we build a way to enter it, or simply have myself or Daniel add it to the list?
• How does this translate to mobile?
  • Utilizing the right column will drop it below content, but I can potentially work around that very easily.

[anekola]

Below are two options for posts (and potentially sessions). Perhaps we could do one style for each? The first is a 'ribbon' above the body and under the byline. The second is a 'shoulder box' that floats in the top right of the text.

The shoulder box would bump down any images you're trying to insert in the text. But, going forward, we should be trying to use the "Featured Image" option on posts instead of inserting the lead image in the text - if you do that, then there won't be a conflict.

Also, these images would ideally be transparent .png files (without the white background).

[jeannebrooks]

Thanks @anekola! I love having options and I like what you've created here. @jstrelitz check it out. Here are some options for branding the sponsored posts.

p.s. Bacon IS the best.

[anekola]

Also, note that these styles are very flexible. Just trying to convey the idea.

Yes. Bacon.

[jeremiahnpatterson]

@anekola I really like where these are heading. I think both offer key opportunities and integrate nicely with our design. Thanks!

[danielbachhuber]

+1 I dig both designs.

We can make this manageable through the spreadsheet with a "Sponsor" column — provided the value in the column corresponds with a pre-existing ad asset.

[jstrelitz]

Hi all! I like both options, and would like to be able to offer both. I would need to know the specs for each option so I can build out the package.

[anekola]

You can see these on the dev site right now: http://ona13.danielbachhuber.com/2013/07/02/bacon-is-the-best/

From a templating perspective, it'd be much easier to have one style for article posts and one style for session pages.

[jstrelitz]

If I cannot view the link above, whats the best way for me to go about getting access?

[jeremiahnpatterson]

@jstrelitz Daniel will have to add you as a user on the staging server. Here's a screen shot for now.

[danielbachhuber]

@jstrelitz Can you send me your email address and I'll add you to the site d@danielbachhuber.com

[jstrelitz]

jessica@journalists.org

[jstrelitz]

Also, do we have specs on these ad types?

[anekola]

@jstrelitz I'll get those to you soon, Jessica. As you can see in the image below, I've made adjustments so that it should work OK with long sponsor names as well; so there won't be a character limit - only sizes for the logos.

[anekola]

@jstrelitz @jeannebrooks I think the best way to manage images for sponsors is to use the "Featured Image" upload in the sponsor admin. This limits you to using one image for each sponsor, but I've programmed it to create multiple sizes for that image. From an admin perspective, it gets a little clunky if I program in multiple file url fields - and doing it this way ensures that someone won't accidentally break things.

Here's the Marquette image as an example. You'll see that in the post banner, it scales down a lot; but it's still recognizable. A very tall image would not work in the post banner, because the max-height is 24px.

Here are the current MAX dimensions; anything beyond either will scale to fit within both:

Post ribbon: 200 w x 25 h .. ratio 8:1 ... realistically, you wouldn't want anything this wide Session shoulder: 120 w x 200 h .. ratio 3:5 Home/schedule row: 140 w x 140 h .. ratio 1:1

*Note - The icons above look pixelated and the screenshots are huge because I'm on a retina display Macbook.

[jstrelitz]

@anekola

To confirm, for the "Sponsored By" ribbon for sponsored blog posts (both for sponsored content and for a sponsored post) the spec is 200 w x 25 h .. ratio 8:1. Can you explain the ratio to me?

[anekola]

Sorry, just added the ratios to illustrate the difference in dimensions better between the three locations.

I'm talking to @jeremiahnpatterson tonight; after that there will be several examples on the development server which will actually allow you to see how several sponsors' logos would appear.

[jstrelitz]

Hi guys - any updates on this? @anekola @jeremiahnpatterson

[jstrelitz]

And is 200 w x 25 h -- pixels?

[anekola]

Yes, those are all pixels. I gave Jeremiah the run down last night, he can step you through how to enter a sponsor and assign it to a post or session - as well as put the logo on the home or schedule pages.