Fox Interactive's popular video game portal IGN will be doing away with banner ads as it steps up its deployment of broadband video advertising, the company said Tuesday. Why? Apparently, broadband
penetration among its user base is so high the company believes it can make more money by selling more rich media and video ads. Another reason, says David Tokheim, IGN's head of marketing, is that
younger audiences don't respond to static banners--you need to create "unique custom ads" to reach its savvier user base. Like what? Ubisoft Entertainment, maker of the popular Tom Clancy Splinter
Celln game franchise, recently bought a customized full-day takeover of the site. IGN executives did not say how much ads cost Ubisoft, nor did they disclose how well it performed; they only said
these are the types of deals the company's looking to make in the future. You might expect this trend to continue in the coming years, especially for publishers with young-skewing audiences like
Heavy.com, GameSpot.com, and MySpace, News Corp.'s biggest Web property, which the company is still trying to monetize properly.
Read the whole story at Forbes.com »
