• by Ken Liebeskind , May 10, 2001

Mondo Media, a 12-year-old company that has been producing entertainment programs for a host of portals and websites, is suddenly in the ad business.

The company has recently introduced Mondo SideShow, a new ad format that includes a 15 second flash animation commercial plugged into Mondo's three to five minute entertainment shows surrounded by a wealth of banners and buttons that run on the site for the duration of the show.

"It's an immersive sponsorship opportunity," says David McCoy, Mondo's VP of ad sales. "The viewer is immersed in the show and the persistence of advertising creative throughout the show."

He distinguishes it from TV advertising, which appears sporadically. The 15-second commercial in the Mondo SideShow will work that way, but the rest of the advertising appears continuously while the show plays in a partial screen environment.

"Advertisers get a chance to spend three to five minutes with potential customers for the length of the show."

There are a series of components that comprise a Mondo SideShow buy, including "the barker," a 120 x 60 pixel button, "the sidekick," a 125 x 125 pixel mini banner, the 15-second flash commercial and "the closer" a 496 x 286 pixel large banner that plays at the end of the show to initiate a call to action. Advertisers can also buy a mini site, which is a jump page they can use to sell products directly, so the viewer doesn't have to leave the site.

The 15-second flash commercial is clickable. Viewers can click to visit the advertiser's site and return to the show without missing any of the action. "It's like TiVo," McCoy says. Mondo Media can also produce original commercials for the advertisers or use agency spots.

The company sold no advertising until this year, earning its money from syndication fees paid for its programs by portals, destination sites and vertical sites, such as Yahoo, Shockwave.com and Ifilm.com. "We took emphasis on creating advertising revenue in the middle of last year and I started in November," McCoy says. He has a three person sales staff based in San Francisco and New York.

The advertising will work for sponsors seeking to reach the demographics Mondo's shows appeal to, mostly teens. The first advertiser was Namco, which advertised a product called Tekkan, a martial arts game. McCoy says other advertisers include Reel.com, BBC America, Priceline.com, and Altoids, with three to four more to be signed within a month.

Advertisers pay per impression, with ads running for the amount of time it takes to get the desired impressions. Mondo generates a million impressions a month, McCoy says.

He claims the click through rate for Mondo SideShow ads is 6 to 12%. "As long as the ad is appropriate to the environment, people will take action."

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com