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.