‘Promoted’ content and ‘In association with…’ What does it mean?

On catmag.co.uk you will occasionally see articles with the page header ‘Promoted content on behalf of…’ or ‘In association with…’, but what does this mean?

In this example, the CAT newsletter appears ‘In association with’ the Garage and Bodyshop Show, while there is a link to a ‘Promoted’ article from the same client on the website

Simply put, ‘promoted’ copy is supplied by the company that is paying for it to appear, while ‘In association with’ appears next to articles where a client wishes to sponsor a feature, but does not have or require any input on the content of the article.

A good example is our six-story newsletter. The newsletter usually appears ‘in association with’ an advertising client that has paid for its logo and banner advert. Meanwhile, the top story on the right hand side features a link to a ‘Promoted’ story on our website, which may or may not have been bought by the same client.

Here are our definitions in a little more depth:

In association with

‘In association with’ articles have either been created editorially and then been identified as valuable for a commercial supporter to have their name associated with, or their creation has been made possible by a commercial supporter’s funding.

However, they are always created or commissioned by our editorial team to our editorial standards. While the associated commercial partner can make content suggestions, the editorial team does not have to use them. The commercial partner has no sight of the content before it gets published and cannot request amendments.

Promoted content

These are articles featuring product messaging from a commercial client. These will generally be written by the client itself, or (as is more often the case) by a commercial agency on their behalf. You’ll find most articles of this type under the ‘Industry Insights.’ It will always be labelled as ‘Promoted’ or ‘Promo’ and is paid-for advertising content that aims to inform you about a topic we think you might be interested in. This varies from simple product promotion, to in-depth technical or training content supplied by the client.

Promotion

Very occasionally you might see an item marked ‘Promotion’. This is simply a sales offer from one of our long-time advertising partners, for which the details of require written copy to to explain beyond what can be put in a regular display advert. Space for such promotions is only offered to companies that CAT has a good relationship with to ensure readers are able to take advantage of genuine deals.