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Bulldog Solutions and Frost & Sullivan are partnering to offer services to advertisers that want to build microsites for related content or to develop other integrated marketing products - a growing but still unmet need among online advertisers, according to the participants.

High Gear
Frost & Sullivan has been working with Bulldog on small projects but this partnership kicks its relationship into high gear, according to Jake Wengroff, director of corporate communcations at F&S. The new relationship is part of Frost & Sullivan's new push to offer social media consulting and integrated marketing solutions, he says - as well as a reflection of a larger shift towards ad-sponsored portals, microsites or other resources for consumers to visit again and again.

"Companies still want to advertise online - but they are no longer content with just banner or email alerts. They are looking for more compelling ways for publishers to engage with advertisers," Wengroff says. "To use a term that was popular ten years ago, what advertisers want now is something sticky online," Wengroff says, "a site that consumers will return to again and again."

Piecemeal So Far
Business publishers have been putting together such sites on a piecemeal basis. Frost & Sullivan is not a business publisher, but as a research and consulting firm it does produce custom content and provide such services. "We have a lot of top level marketing titles among our clients that have been expressing an interest in this," he says.