• March 7, 2005

Rich media company Eyeblaster will unveil today a new video ad format, dubbed "VideoStrip," which allows video to be played in a small banner ad--and, if the user desires, expanded into a full-size. The ad format essentially delivers a twist on older-style expandable banners, which generally only displayed video if the user clicked to expand the ad. VideoStrip plays the video in the narrower ad format--and if the user mouses over or clicks, expands the video to a larger-sized viewing format, and starts up audio.

An Eyeblaster spokesman declined to comment on possible advertisers that might use the format, other than to say the company shopped the format around to several entertainment companies and agencies. In addition to the VideoStrip format, Eyeblaster also introduced Custom Reports Builder, which offers its agency and publisher customers more control over which data is presented in campaign tracking reports.

--Shankar Gupta