• by Ken Liebeskind , May 24, 2002

Pop-up ads increasingly appear when you open web pages. Soon they may begin popping up when you start your computer. “The technology enables marketers to put content on the PC at boot-up time," says Ian Cross, vice president of marketing for Turn On Media, a division of Insyde Software of Westborough, Mass., that introduced Turn On Media last month. After the ads play, users can click a link to go directly to an advertiser's web page or hit Escape and return to the boot-up process.

The technology is a player, a piece of software users load into their computers that enables them to receive full-screen ads prepared by the advertisers and served by Turn On Media. Advertisers use Turn On's Campaign Manager, a password-protected feature of its website, to send advertising content to Turn On and set its schedule.

Marketers create a 640 x 480 pixel gif or jpeg file, a full-screen ad. They can create a single file or multi files that can be played in succession, for perhaps five seconds at a time. The ads play before Windows software loads, prompting Turn On to call it "the first impression of the day." This could make it a powerful marketing tool. "It seems a great time to reach consumers while the computer is loading, when they are not distracted by other things," says David Williams, president of 360i.com, an interactive agency in Atlanta. "We would evaluate it and possibly use it for campaigns."

The first client is Lifetips.com, a community of 170 sites, similar to About.com, that provides a variety of content in the form of tips. The company will use Turn On to send tips to users who can then be taken to the sites where the tips are offered. The sites are sponsored by advertisers who play ads at the sites. For instance, Cleaning-tips.com has an advertiser called Clean Team, a cleaning service, whose ads will be seen after users see related tips at Turn On.

Lifetips has a user base of 130,000 who can opt into Turn On at Lifetips.com or through an email Lifetips will send them.

"We look for innovate ways to promote ourself and get content out," says Byron White, president of Lifetips. The company uses search engines, barter agreements, and link exchange programs to advertise. Now it will use Turn On.

Turn On will eventually be sold on a CPM basis, but it is now being offered at a charter rate of $5,000, with ads sent to up to 100,000 users.

When asked why computer users would agree to accept advertising as soon as they turn on their computers, Cross says, "It depends on your definition of advertising." He explains that Turn On will be a way for advertisers to reach an established customer base with other forms of content, such as Lifetips informative tips. Other clients may be entertainment companies that will send movie trailers or music. He compares Turn On to Amazon.com, which frequently sends shoppers information about products they may be interested in.