Most newer-generation PCs are equipped with improved audio capability, which has prompted a fresh surge in advertising over audio band frequencies, including online radio. But tracking audio ads has been difficult at best, so activity has been slow to develop. Help is now available from theDial, a Seattle-based company (www.thedial.com) offering real-time audio ad verification services for its client advertisers. Claiming new technology, the company’s tool tracks each stream as an ad plays and sends an electronic blip, a ping, to the ad agency's server to record the activity. Audio ads on theDial are streamed for 15 seconds along …

With email campaigns generating a much higher click-through rate than traditional banners, everyone’s looking for a way to make their email stand out. That’s where Silverpop’s new rich media email software comes in. The first to be released in this series of products is Silverpop Campaign Edition, which lets users create, send, and track emails with video, audio, and images, and integrates into existing email systems, so there are no worries, or hassles about rendering current software obsolete. This software is intended to give users the ability to effectively communicate using rich media email messages; send these messages to …

Fasten your seat belts: Experimentation is back in vogue. Fearing they may not survive the great web shake-out of 2001, publishers are starting to experiment like crazy in order to see what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to online advertising. What a change from a year ago! In the old days, the big fear for publishers was losing and alienating their audience—advertisers be damned. Anything that smacked of intrusiveness was verboten. We used to call it the “Yahoo! Playground Syndrome”: the Yahoo sales staff had a directive from on high that stated that Yahoo!“is not a playground …

With guidelines for web ad sizes over four years old, it was certainly time for the new IAB standards, which now include skyscrapers and pop-ups, among other previously non-standardized units. Robin Webster, the new CEO of the IAB, assures industry professionals that the next review won’t be such a long time coming, promising that the IAB will review the standards, and possibly introduce new ones, every six months. Webster also promises rich media standards in the coming months. But will the industry uniformly adopt such guidelines or should it focus on evolving proven successes? Tom Hespos, Internet strategist at Mezzina …

With all the talk of wireless advertising in the air, it seems like the right time to survey websites providing information on buying wireless ad space. Everything from sample WAP ads to wireless ad statistics can be found on these sites. Some of the best of them are listed below. Advertising.com (www.advertising.com), a leading media company that specializes in cross-platform marketing, includes a thorough section on wireless advertising on its site. By clicking on the “technology” tab from the homepage, then the “wireless” link from that page, users are taken to a “Wireless Overview” page, describing the wireless options …

VFlash Messenger is a user-activated pop-up display device. It can be downloaded from the vflash.com site or it can be distributed as part of a CD’s contents, displayed at any URL, or attached to emails. Its touted advantages include a one-to-one connection with customers, high-profile product alert capability, consumer tracking in a report format, database building, and loyalty program integration. VFlash transmissions are not immediately displayed. An incoming message triggers an icon (and/or an audible cue) in the lower right hand corner system tray of a Windows screen. Click on the blinking icon to launch a message in a …

Once everyone’s favorite buzzword, convergence is no longer the stuff of dreams. The Internet has blurred many lines between different media, and that’s good news—because with every blurry line, we get yet another ad vehicle. Ads follow the eyeballs, right? Some of these concepts work and some don’t, almost all are initially infuriating, but nevertheless deserve a try. Or so we’ve been taught. To quote almost every sales person pitching a new concept at a discount rate, “There’s no harm in trying.” Or is there? Have we gone too far? Here’s an example: Ten Square, a Silicon Valley company, …