• by Masha Geller , March 16, 2003

It can move, talk, offer a wealth of information and has the potential to do away with the click-through as a measure of online ad success. And excluding the usual skepticism that accompanies the launch of all new online ad formats, SF Interactive’s new offering seems to have few downsides.

Interactive marketing agency SF Interactive (SFI) today announced a proprietary “Ad Cube” (Ad3) platform – “a multi-dimensional, interactive advertising and branding environment that allows online viewers to interact with strategic marketing content in uniquely engaging and fully-measurable ways.”

The name of the new unit comes from what advertisers can put into it. SFI says it's a large-format online ad that works like a microsite, housing video, sound, 3D and Flash animation, and text-based documents and content. It also offers a point & click user interface that measures user interaction, not click-throughs, to gauge success. SF also claims the Ad Cube keeps viewers on-site longer, instead of redirecting them to other sites via click-throughs typically associated with banner ads, pop-ups and interstitials.

“Marketers have been searching for a multi-purpose branding vehicle that extends, re-purposes and integrates rich media content developed for their marketing, advertising, sales and business development programs,” said Bruce Carlisle, President of SFI, adding that the ad cube offers just that.

SFI is quick to point out that the unit conforms to current IAB standards, which makes it acceptable by almost all existing websites. As with most rich media ads, the Ad Cube work best with a broadband connection, but with only a 25 KB footprint, high-speed serving solution, and full tracking and measurement capabilities provided by third-party BlueStreak, the Ad Cube allows publishers to accept advertising with up to 50 megabytes of information content.

SF Interactive has already deployed the Ad Cube for several clients including Cisco, VeriSign and Quantum.

Bill Fasig, EVP, Marketing at Verisign, said, “We see the Ad Cube platform as an innovative online differentiator that works hard at supporting our products and services.”

As with any online ad format, he adds, practice makes perfect. “We learned a lot from our first Ad Cube execution, Fasig said. “Now, we’re enhancing it with a downloadable white paper and an interactive FAQ to provide online viewers with deeper product knowledge right at the point of interaction.”

SFI is in active pursuit of contracting with leading online publishers to have them adopt the technology platform and offer it to all advertisers as a new ad unit format.

Examples of the new unit can be found at http://www.sfinteractive.com/ad3.