What sponsorship can buy

  • Promotional visibility: a featured placement, a sponsored category highlight, or a sponsored buyer guide.
  • Additional factual detail in an enhanced profile, plus approved portfolio media and contact links.
  • Clearly labelled display advertising on relevant pages.
  • A commissioned educational article, published subject to editorial and legal review.
  • Access to the vendor listing and sponsorship enquiry processes.

What sponsorship cannot buy

  • A rating, a score, a star rating or any numerical verdict.
  • A favourable conclusion in a review, comparison or guide.
  • A position in an editorial ranking, or inclusion in one.
  • The removal or downgrading of a competitor.
  • The removal of a limitation, caveat or unanswered question from a profile.
  • Suppression of a correction to a material factual error.

Where a commercial arrangement would affect which providers a buyer sees, that is disclosed to the buyer directly rather than buried in a policy.

How paid placement is labelled

Labelling is designed to be visible without being obstructive. Sponsored listings carry a clear label in the directory grid and on the profile itself. Sponsored articles state their sponsor in the title area, the byline and the opening paragraphs. Sponsored guides and resources are marked on the index page and on the resource itself. A reader should never have to hunt for the fact that something is paid for.

Rules for sponsored content

Where a provider commissions educational content, the sponsor is identified prominently. The content must pass editorial review and legal review before publication. It may not make unsupported claims about competitors. It must offer something genuinely useful to the reader, and it must state its commercial relationship with the publisher. Sponsored content is never presented as independent research.

Examples of the kind of content we will consider include a provider explaining its approach to content localization, a shared technical guide to interactive simulation design, or a clearly labelled sponsored article about a service. We are not interested in sponsored content that exists only to mention a sponsor.

Advertising

We accept a small number of relevant display advertisements. Advertising is kept to a level that does not obstruct the reading experience, because the value of this publication to a buyer depends on their ability to read it. We do not accept pop-ups, interstitials, or advertising that mimics a directory result or a review.

Enquiries

Commercial enquiries should go through the vendor and sponsorship enquiry page. Editorial questions, correction requests and challenges to a conclusion should go to the editorial team and will not be handled commercially.