• by Masha Geller , May 6, 2002

Almost exactly a year ago, on May 4, 2001, Yahoo and Ford made online ad history with the Explorer ad that featured with flying birds, the sound of a powerful motor, a shaking screen and a huge red Explorer driving up to the front, taking over most of the homepage.

Well, Ford and Yahoo! are at it again. This time the ad is not quite as exciting, partly because the online world has gotten somewhat used to things flying across the screens in the last year, but it’s nice to know someone like Ford liked the web enough to come back for more. Much more.

The "Totally New" 2003 Ford Expedition was showcased yesterday on the Yahoo! homepage. If you missed it, check back tomorrow for an encore.

The "floating ad" is designed to emphasize the Ford Expedition's new innovations and features. Upon page load, the message "Packed with 123 Innovations" appears within a floating rugged road on top of the page. The features of the Expedition, written out as text, begin to fly onto the screen and pick up speed. The innovations begin to build upon one another and in the text, the user begins to see the shape of the car being formed. Finally, the text image fades into an actual photo and reveals Ford's tag line "The Totally New 2003 Ford Expedition. It has no equal." The ad then slips into the Marketplace position on Yahoo!'s front page.

What’s more, Yahoo is not alone is getting Ford’s ad dollars. The MSN network today also launched a newly designed interactive ad to help launch and promote the Expedition. MSN custom developed the Flash ad to integrate and enhance the offline launch campaign. To convey the campaign’s theme that the 2003 Expedition is totally new, the ad features a silhouette of the new vehicle dropping onto the page. The headlights start flashing, blazing faster and faster through some of the new features, until the 2003 Ford Expedition is revealed with the tag line, “packed with 123 innovations.” Because the ad was developed internally, it will appear only on MSN.

Here’s to more traditional ad dollars moving online.