• by Ken Liebeskind , April 10, 2001

Beginning next week, strange graphics will be moving across the Boston.com home page. And they have a strange name: "shoshkeles."

Shoskeles are free moving animations used by online advertisers and Boston.com, which is affiliated with The Boston Globe, will use it to sell two company products: newspaper subscriptions and @Bat Insider, an email newsletter for Boston Red Sox fans that was launched last week.

United Virtualities, a New York firm, developed shoskeles and has used them for Monster.com and the Bermuda Board of Tourism. Boston.com, its third client, begins the campaign April 18.

Visitors to the Boston.com home page will see a Boston Globe home delivery truck driving across the screen. When it gets to the right side of the screen a newspaper opens with a message about a subscription offer. A 120 x 60 pixel banner appears above the newspaper. Readers who click on it are taken to another page where they can fill out a subscription order form.

The @Bat Insider ad is even more creative, with red sox on a clothes line and a tee shirt that moves across the screen with a subscription message. It can also be clicked to take readers to a registration page.

The ads appear on the screen as soon as the page content loads. The animation lasts about eight seconds and cannot be stopped by the reader, according to Christopher Actis, marketing director of United Virtualities.

Boston.com has used banners before to sell subscriptions, but never a moving image like a shoshkeles. "We're always trying to investigate new ad models that will deliver higher response, so it got our attention," says Stephanie Shore, Boston.com's director of marketing. She contacted United Virtualities after seeing the Monster.com ad, Actis says.

United Virtualities will serve the ads, alternating them so readers never see the same ad twice in a single day.

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com