EyeWonder Takes Takeovers To Another Level
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, July 8, 2009
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.
No mention of what *users* are actually looking for? Just publishers and marketers? No wonder people generally hate online ad units. (Pun not intended.)
The reason this article doesn't talk about what the users actually want is because it would be a horribly damning opinion on companies like EyeWonder. I've seen this sort of ad on a site before and you know what happened? I was immediately pissed off. It ruined any good experience I expected to have with that site.
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.
People don't seem to mind full-spread ads in magazines. They look at them (or don't) and turn the page. Why couldn't there be a similar ad for online publishers?
@Bryan In the case of the ad unit discussed in the story, the user initiates the full-takeover.
This would just send me off the page -- literally. Not only would it be more than annoying, some of us still live where truly high-speed Internet is only a future dream. And at work, I'm looking for information, not gimmick advertising. Not that I don't stop to look at interesting advertising in magazines, billboards, even TV, because my background is advertising, but this would be totally disruptive at the online speed I live with.
Again "just because you can doesn't mean you should." John makes a great point: full page ads are just fine in print media, so why can't they work in the online world. Seems to me that an interstitial, page between pages, might not be a bad advertising solution for online. Ok, so I had to "flip the page (click to go tot he next page), that is not a big time waster with broadband. A full page ad experience benefits the creative community, the web site publisher and ultimately could result in increased content as the ad revenue model starts working for more publishers.
>>Ok, so I had to "flip the page (click to go tot he next page), that is not a big time waster with broadband. <<
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.
The bounce rate is going to be impressive. Upon encountering any full page "take over ad" the back button on every browser provides a quick and immediate solution. Does anyone remember when Flash intros provided an option to skip the intro? Because the "skip into" option became the most clicked link on many Web sites most Web master's removed the option. The back button on the browser cannot be removed. I'm changing the name of EyeWonder to BackButton.
Ok Donna, I will agree with you that there is a loading issue for those few who still have slower speeds. I imagine that these users will be upgrading in the next couple of years, or when faster speeds are available to them. With 80% or so of the US market using broadband, this is becoming less of an issue. Since you have some resistance to this suggestion (which is just fine), I have a question for you: What revenue model (s) would you suggest for publishers on the WWW?
What a load of crap! Online display formats need to become less interruptive.......this goes in completely the wrong direction. The Open IMU format uses existing display media placements, (such as an MPU) to deliver dynamic content, which drives, repeat engagement. With install rates that better average click through rates, we think we are onto something.
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