• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 19, 2012

Vibrant Media, one of the leaders in the contextual, "in-text" ad business (ads that are hyperlinked to relevant keywords in online content), is muscling its way into the contextual, "in-image" advertising business. Vibrant, which estimates that a "third" of all online content is images, this morning announced the acquisition of Image Space Media, a company devoted to developing in-image advertising.

The deal is part of Vibrant Media’s mission under new CEO Cella Irvine, to expand into new categories that create new, relevant advertising for advertisers and consumers.

"Traditional ad models were brought online through pre-roll and display, but we create unique media placements that are designed for the interactive nature of the Internet and deliver truly relevant ad experiences to users,” stated Irvine, adding: “Roughly 30% of our publishers’ content is images, and they now play an important role in our strategy to deliver new media placements."

Basically, Vibrant's new technology makes those static images linkable to relevant ads based on the same kind of data and analytics it uses to insert hyperlinkable keywords into text.

Vibrant did not disclose terms of the acquisition, but said it currently works with more than 6,500 publishers and the top 100 advertisers, including Vodafone, Chrysler, and Unilever.