• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 9, 2009

DailyKos story

Online display advertising has found an unlikely champion in DailyKos.com founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, better known as Kos.

After the liberal political blog ran its first home page takeover ad this week -- for the upcoming Frontline program, "Obama's War," -- Moulitsas hailed the unit's performance and promised readers more of the same. The effort included ad creative that wrapped around the page showing soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan as well as in-page banner ads using the same imagery.

"The big PBS ad currently running is called a "skin", and you'll be seeing a lot more of them here and elsewhere around the Web because, quite simply, they are very effective (TPM had the same ad a few days ago)," wrote Moulitsas on Wednesday.

"Halfway into its 24-hour run, this one has already been the most successful ad in terms of click-throughs rates in this site's history. So whatever aesthetic and moral concerns some might have about it, it has worked spectacularly well and you'll be seeing more of them in the future."

He added: "Advertising may be an evil, but it's a necessary one." Similar roadblocks for "Obama's War" have also run on Wonkette and Powerline, which are also part of the Blogads ad network. The promotion also ran separately on political blog Talking Points Memo.

Blogads CEO Henry Copeland said advertisers are driving demand for more high-impact ads as computer screens get bigger, making standard display units look smaller. "And when it's bold -- like the "Obama's War" skin on a site like Daily Kos that the press and 2 million political junkies read -- you know people are going to pay attention," said Copeland.

Publishers have gotten behind the push for more intrusive, eye-catching ads, with the Online Publishers Association earlier this year introducing three extra large ad units for member sites. And the Interactive Advertising Bureau launched a separate effort to promote the creative potential of interactive media to boost brand advertising online.

Typically, home page takeovers have been associated mostly with Web portals such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL and the sites of major newspapers like The New York Times and the Washington Post. The Post this year has run similar takeovers to that on Daily Kos for advertisers such as Siemens -- and most recently, Yahoo, with the company's purple branding surrounding the home page.

With the splashy blog campaign for "Obama's War," PBS is targeting the politically active or aware audience it expects to be interested in watching the show examining the U.S. role in Afghanistan that kicks off Frontline's new season on Oct. 13.

As to the performance of the "Obama's War," ad on Daily Kos, Copeland declined to specify the click-through rate -- but it was "an order of magnitude better than what most ads get," he said. "But even the great CTR doesn't capture the huge impact on awareness that this kind of campaign drives."

Blogads handled the ad buy directly with Frontline producer WGBH Boston, and handled the design work with creative assets supplied by the PBS station.

Reaction to the "Obama's War" takeover among the Daily Kos faithful appeared mixed at best, with some accepting the site's attempt to boost ad revenue, and others strenuously objecting. Daily Kos offers users the alternative of subscribing, starting at $4 a month, if they don't want to see ads.

In comments to his post, the combative Moulitsos himself characterized the response as "a loud minority that is freaking out about it, but most people are carrying on as normal." But one commenter took issue with that view. "This ad is all about causing unnecessary pain for users in order to bring in revenue -- and there are alternatives. And, your response is basically a big 'fuck you' to users."