BTG Service Pushes Data to Federal Market
BTG Service Pushes Data to Federal Market By John Makulowich Contributing Writer BTG has a new information service that could give competitors a serious run for their money and help advertisers get a sharper focus on their target audience. In the process, BTG Inc., Fairfax, Va., also refined the notion of what it means to market to the government and the hoard of vendors and contractors. Named Government Insider and part of the PointCast Business Network,
BTG Service Pushes Data to Federal Market
By John Makulowich
Contributing Writer
BTG has a new information service that could give competitors a serious run for their money and help advertisers get a sharper focus on their target audience.
In the process, BTG Inc., Fairfax, Va., also refined the notion of what it means to market to the government and the hoard of vendors and contractors.
Named Government Insider and part of the PointCast Business Network, the free service is profiled as "Your desktop newscast to the federal government," broadcasting the latest information to subscribers, both over the Internet and on intranets.
BTG photo James Scampavia, FedCast marketing manager for BTG Inc. |
Scampavia admits that no company has thus far committed to advertise, but said he is in discussions with several that are close to signing.
Users connecting to the PointCast service (www.pointcast.com) will now see Government Insider as one of the formats in which they can receive selected information, specifically about the federal government. Government Insider provides the same features and content as the news and information service PointCast, plus its federal "channels" or news areas.
Scampavia himself joined the program last March, but he points out that BTG approached PointCast about a year ago about the possibility of developing a vertical market for the federal government.
On the advertising side, Government Insider offers two levels: banner and animated, Scampavia said. The banner is the standard PointCast model, a billboard on the page. With animated, each channel is broken into subchannels, or "tabs," that companies can target with their content.
"Soon we will introduce a new round of channels and more topical information across agencies. This will offer organizations a broader base from which they can pick and choose the channels to advertise on," said Scampavia.
He feels one of the bigger challenges in working with the federal government is not the lack of content, but the lack of good news content, that is, value-added information that individuals can use that is informative and fresh and fits with the dynamic push model.
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