• by Masha Geller , April 26, 2001

I recently read a column in one of the trade journals where the author blamed the standard banner for essentially killing all creativity in online advertising. You've probably read many an article like that yourself - he's not the first, or the last, to complain about not being able to let his creative juices flow freely within a 468x60 rectangle.

I don't support blaming size for lackluster results, but just for kicks, here's a cool tool I found in my web travels that should give all creative complainers an alternative canvas (and no, I'm not talking about bigger units).

As I logged onto some page somewhere, a green circle, about an inch in diameter, bounced its way from what seemed like the inside of the site to the front and splashed into a green mess in the middle of the page. It got my attention. I clicked on it and ended up on http://www.eyeblaster.com

According to the site, unlike traditional banners, eyeblasters provide a combination of three essential factors:

1 - eyeblasters can be designed in any rich-media format, including transparent Flash animation and audio insertion, in practically any size. The company says, "as TV advertising is a much more effective ad format than billboards, so is the eyeblaster superior to banners - both in the rich message that is conveyed, and in the tremendous entertainment aspect of the ad."

2- eyeblasters can be moved across the browser screen, with full control over their initial and final destination position.

3- eyeblasters can be targeted according to end-user demographics, site keywords, sections and pages, as well as different timing parameters, such as days of the week and the time of day campaigns are in effect.

Will these cool-looking, standard-defying things catch advertiser attention? Hard to tell, but I do admit to clicking on one. I'll keep you posted.