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And consumers thought a blinking banner ad was hard to avoid.
Taking attention-seeking to a whole new level, rich media company EyeWonder on Wednesday debuted a new home page-takeover ad that appears to manipulate a surrounding Web page by shrinking, stretching, crumpling or otherwise animating a real-time screenshot of the page.
Thoroughly immersing audiences in an ad experience, the PageMorph takeover format is just what marketers and publishers are looking for, according to Erin Quist, vice president of enterprise solutions at EyeWonder.
"Publishers are looking to create premium placements to sell to advertisers while also keeping ad clutter off their home pages," said Quist. "Advertisers are seeking online ad space that will give their brands extensive reach and exposure to large audiences."
Working through its agency, PLAN.NET, BMW Germany has already run a campaign using PageMorph on the home page of MotorSport-Total.com.
EyeWonder reports that these ads often see a higher-than-average total time of interaction -- some placements nearing the one-minute mark. Rich media ads accounted for 7% of online advertising during the first half of 2008, according to a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Last year, EyeWonder reported that revenue increased 67% year-over-year, although the privately held company declined to provide specifics. The Seattle-based EyeWonder also expanded internationally, opening an office in Sydney, Australia. But with image-based advertising under pressure because of the recession, EyeWonder acknowledged that 2009 is posing a tougher challenge to its business.
"Certainly display advertising has taken a hit during this recession and is a concern for everyone in the ad industry," CEO John Vincent said earlier this year. "However, EyeWonder invested in 2008 in our service and product offerings, and our hope is to be a partner to agencies who have recently had to scale back on their workforce."
EyeWonder's open-standard Universal In-Stream Framework works with any ad-serving provider and supports players built in Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Akamai's Media Framework. The UIF also supports the IAB Video Ad Serving Template guidelines created to meet the need for standardization in the digital video advertising industry.
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Check out the latest campaign for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team. Here's a link to a blog partner placement - top right MPU.
http://www.formula1blog.com/
I’d welcome any comments.
Best wishes,
Joshua
thisisopen.com/blog
Not everyone has broadband and even some broadband connections aren't that fast. It's NOT the same as flipping past a full-page ad in a magazine.
@Bryan In the case of the ad unit discussed in the story, the user initiates the full-takeover.
I wasn't alone: The message boards for the site's feedback section were LIVID. Once that page takeover went live that board erupted with user after user complaining about the site, people saying they'll never buy the company in the ad's products ever again, and many users threatening to cancel their membership to the site unless it was taken care of.
The site owners had to apologize and said they'd work to never have that kind of ad on the site again.
So while engagement times went up, it's because the ad literally takes the page hostage and you don't know what the hell is going on. Worst ad I've ever seen, and I can't believe there's an article praising the complete destruction of a good site experience. Anyone buying these types of ads is kidding themselves. Don't be surprised when your user numbers drop and there's negative sentiment about your company popping up all over the place.