• by July 29, 2002

Popular women’s online destination iVillage Inc. today announced that in response to specific quantitative and qualitative feedback from its visitors, the company plans to eliminate pop-up advertisements on its network of sites by the end of the third quarter of 2002.

This move was based on an iVillage/Vividence survey showing that 92.5% of iVillage women found pop-up advertising to be the most frustrating feature of the Web(a). In addition, while research on the effectiveness of pop-up advertising shows that they can generate high brand awareness, it is not always in a positive way. iVillage studies show that, while women on the iVillage site are receptive to various forms of advertising, such an intrusive ad can actually negatively impact the advertiser.

Nancy Evans, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of iVillage, said, "We have built iVillage by listening to what women want, and our move to eliminate pop-up advertising is a direct example of this. It's not news that women consume media differently than men, yet many leading websites haven't done anything to adapt to this fact. At iVillage we have based everything from our site design and functionality and now to our advertising formats on what we know women want and, more importantly, what works for them."

Vanessa Benfield, Senior Vice President, Sales, iVillage, added, "The support from our advertisers behind this decision has been overwhelming. We have been working closely with them to convert current pop-up ads into stronger, alternate formats to help yield higher results. Although our visitors tell us they don't like pop-up advertising, our research shows that women are interested in and receptive to advertising on our site as long as it is done in an appropriate way. Taking this into account, iVillage has been developing a new generation of advertising formats. These new ads deliver advertisers' messages to the consumer, in an effective, meaningful way."

Edward Kim, Interactive Media Manager, UNUS Media, Unilever U.S said, "Unilever seeks out marketing partners that understand how best to communicate with consumers. By replacing pop-up advertising with ad formats that can break-through the clutter in a way consumers respond to more positively, iVillage has taken a leadership role as a marketer."

iVillage continues to offer sponsors new and innovative ways of partnering with iVillage. These new ad formats heighten the selling power of iVillage. For example, in 2001 iVillage launched its Interquizzal ad model, providing advertisers with a more compelling way to extend their brand and reach their target audience. While results are being calculated for relevant online quizzes and tools, a "processing results" window with an advertiser's message is displayed on screen. The window closes automatically when the quiz results are finalized. The Interquizzal sponsorship system is available to run on all iVillage quizzes and other interactive applications. Creating messaging opportunities, like the Interquizzal, that work with how women consume media, is at the heart of some of the new ad models that iVillage is developing and testing in the third quarter.

A small number of pop-up type placements may continue on the site but will be primarily tied to research and in-house subscription offerings and will be minimal in number, accounting for less than one percent of all ads running on iVillage. In addition to alternate ad formats, multi-sized IAB standard ad units and pop-unders will remain on the site, as well, and iVillage will continue to offer ad placements in newsletters and member mailings. iVillage research has showed these formats to be the most preferred by women while also extremely effective in delivering messages to consumers.