• by Ken Liebeskind , May 24, 2002

The place to go for news about cutting-edge technology has also been the place to find cutting-edge online advertising. CNET has dominated this category since its inception, in part because of its extreme relevance to the high-tech online world. “We live in a very fast-paced economy driven by digitally related products and companies,” says Barry Briggs, president of media. “There’s always something happening with the ramp-up of products, and users turn to us to keep up to speed and understand what to buy.”

Besides CNET.com, the company’s tech-related sites include Techrepublic.com, which it purchased last year, and ZDnet.com. It also runs Gamespot.com, for the gamer population.

Since much of the content is geared to the latest high-tech products, the sites are ideal for high-tech advertisers, which include Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, and Gateway.

Briggs distinguishes between push advertising, like TV, which serves ads to undefined users, and pull advertising, like the yellow pages, which attracts specific searchers. “We’re more like the yellow pages, although we have the ability to broadcast,” he says. Users come to the site to learn about products they may purchase, so they seek the information the advertising provides.

CNET is renowned for introducing novel ad formats that permit advertisers to provide detailed information about their new products. “The banner metaphor doesn’t give them compelling information, so we introduced new, innovative treatments that serve to inform and persuade and move someone to a place where they can make smart buying decisions,” Briggs says.

The first big innovation was the Messaging Plus Unit, a large-size ad with separate tabs users can click on to get detailed product information. The unit was such a big success after it was introduced a year ago that it soon became a standard IAB format.

Later in the year, CNET introduced the Impact Launch Unit, a large-size ad that appears across the top of the page for three seconds, then rolls up into a small ad that can be clicked for detailed information. The format is especially geared to product launches, which makes it ideal for CNET’s advertisers. Microsoft was the first to use it, in association with the XP launch in October.

A survey participant lauds CNET for being “the first to develop the gigantic ad units.”

Unique audience: 12.7 million Time per person: 10 minutes 2001 ad revenue, through Sept: $12.9 million