• by Masha Geller , March 27, 2003

Out with the old, in with the new, as the cliche goes. At least for the local advertising sales division of Jumpstart Digital Marketing, Inc., an interactive media sales, marketing and technology company, which recently stopped selling static banner ads to local auto dealers. Instead, the Jumpstart is recommending Point Roll rich media ads to their auto clients.

Though partnerships with major auto sites such as NADAguides.com; CarandDriver.com; StoneAge.com; RoadandTrack.com; and Car.com, Jumpstart delivers more than 3.5 million car shoppers each month. Geographic segments of this audience can be targeted to help local and regional auto dealers reach in-market car buyers in their area.

Jumpstarts says the decision to drop banners was made to encourage dealers to take advantage of the multiple panels offered by Point Roll ad units.

"Dealers know that the majority of their customers are online before they come to the showroom," says Thomas J. O'Leary, Jumpstart's Detroit-based Vice President of Local Advertising Sales. "While it makes good sense to advertise where your customers are, dealers are savvy marketers and have questioned the effectiveness of "banners and buttons." He says that the Point Roll solution really grabs your attention -- it gives dealers more room to tell their story. They can show model details, prices, used specials, no hassle pricing, customized value propositions, even photos and video if they want them.

The Point Roll ads appear like a normal banner but expands to 4 times the size whenever the user rolls his/her mouse over the ad unit. Those mouseovers reveal up to eight additional "panels" or extra real estate for dealers offerings. "Point Roll ads are essentially like having a mini version of our dealers' site within the ad units and, of course, can contain hot links to content on the car dealers' own websites," says Mr. O'Leary.

The major attraction of Point Roll ads seems to be that they are user initiated. Unlike other ad units that have been the source of so much controversy, these aren't meant to assertively push ad messages on potential customers. The design of the ads encourages interaction without coming on too forcefully.

"Although banners are thought to be ineffective because they can't deliver enough information and their click-through rates are low, Point Roll ads, which are the same unit size as banners, don't require visitors to click on them to be effective. As a matter of fact, 50% of the unique visitors to our partner sites look at Point Roll ads," says Mr. O'Leary. "That is an enormous response from a very large group of in-market buyers."