• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 13, 2005

Internet users who moused over banner ads for the Dimension Films hit "Sin City" in the last two weeks might have been startled to see them expand to a rich media ad with full streaming motion and sound. The new format, dubbed "The Big Picture" by Klipmart, the online ad shop responsible, expands banners from 720 by 90 pixels to 728 by 275 pixels of streaming video intended to capture the wandering minds of Web surfers.

"The Big Picture" was first put to use for the "Sin City" online trailer, Chris Young, chief executive officer of Klipmart, said. An online trailer for MGM's remake of "The Amityville Horror" is also currently using the technology. Young added that Klipmart plans further refinements in the future. "We've been doing video ads for over five years now, so it's our job to continuously innovate," said Young. "We've got things in the pipeline--from improved resolution to serving over mobile devices, to 3D applications--that'll blow your mind."

The "Sin City" online ad is a revamped version of the TV trailer, as are most of Klipmart's streaming online ads. Brooklyn-based interactive creative agency Deep Focus, which signed a preferred online video vendor contract with Klipmart on April 6, adapted the ad for the Internet. "The fact that the ad expands didn't change the reformatting process for us," said Ian Schafer, president of Deep Focus. "We were just happy to see the ad delivers the same 'Wow' factor that's being associated with 'Sin City.'"

"The Big Picture" is not to be confused with Klipmart's "Full Screen Experience" unit, which invites users to click an option to enlarge ads to full-screen size. "The Big Picture" banner ads expand simply by mousing over any part of the ad, just as a comic-like caption on the ads which reads "Rollover To Expand" implies.