new ad formats to beat the recession
July 2009
Meebo, a US-based instant messaging site has come up with a new ad format that guarantees users will spend at least 30-seconds interacting with ads that run in its new advertising units in a bid to entice advertisers back to the site.
Convincing marketers to try a new type of internet ad format isn’t easy these days as ad budgets are being cut and, as utalkmarketing reported last week, CEOs are now demanding to see positive ROI on all advertising spend.
The new ads are integrated within the Meebo real time communications service, which provides instant messaging and link-sharing capabilities on more than 40 web sites including myYearbook, CafeMom and Current TV.
The IM site has confirmed that up to 85 web sites have signed up to go live with the service.
At first glance, Meebo’s new ads don’t look like that big of a deal - the ad is essentially a small icon within the Meebo toolbar that’s parked at the bottom of a partner site’s web page. But a click on the icon expands into an “ overlay” of up to 900×400 pixels, which can feature rich media, such as video and games.
User engagement with the new ads is much better than with traditional online display ads, because viewers would need to click on the tab to call up the ad, according to Meebo COO Martin Green.
He said that the testing the company has been doing of the ads over the past month show that users are actually spending in excess of one minute engaging with the ads.
Meebo has won over at least two brand heavyweights. AT&T and Toyota are both signed on to run Meebo ads. If an advertiser gets less than 30 seconds “ air time” Green says the company will make up the time by running a proportional amount of ads to cover the discrepancy.
Source: Utalkmarketing.com
Convincing marketers to try a new type of internet ad format isn’t easy these days as ad budgets are being cut and, as utalkmarketing reported last week, CEOs are now demanding to see positive ROI on all advertising spend.
The new ads are integrated within the Meebo real time communications service, which provides instant messaging and link-sharing capabilities on more than 40 web sites including myYearbook, CafeMom and Current TV.
The IM site has confirmed that up to 85 web sites have signed up to go live with the service.
At first glance, Meebo’s new ads don’t look like that big of a deal - the ad is essentially a small icon within the Meebo toolbar that’s parked at the bottom of a partner site’s web page. But a click on the icon expands into an “ overlay” of up to 900×400 pixels, which can feature rich media, such as video and games.
User engagement with the new ads is much better than with traditional online display ads, because viewers would need to click on the tab to call up the ad, according to Meebo COO Martin Green.
He said that the testing the company has been doing of the ads over the past month show that users are actually spending in excess of one minute engaging with the ads.
Meebo has won over at least two brand heavyweights. AT&T and Toyota are both signed on to run Meebo ads. If an advertiser gets less than 30 seconds “ air time” Green says the company will make up the time by running a proportional amount of ads to cover the discrepancy.
Source: Utalkmarketing.com
