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BEYOND THE BANNER
New online ads float, flash and can't be clicked off
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 2, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/02/ BU98776.DTL
Web surfers have learned to ignore banner ads and click past pop-up ads. But
they can't ignore the animated lizard that skitters across the Lycos.com home
page with a Saturn sport utility vehicle in pursuit. The cartoon blocks the Web
page from full view for 20 seconds.
That Saturn pitch, which has also run on ComedyCentral.com, ESPN.com,
Weather.com and EOnline.com, exemplifies the latest generation in the
increasingly intrusive evolution of online advertising. Visitors have no
choice: They have to watch the advertisement until it disappears.
These new advertisements take three forms, all of which obscure the page the
reader wants to view: floating ads like the Saturn lizard spot, which feature
cartoon-style animation; so-called in-line interstitials that are essentially
flashing full-page billboards; and full-page commercials.
Advertisers are willing to shell out as much as four times more for the
floaters and commercials than they do for banners. They say the new ads give
greater opportunity for creativity. And their virtual inescapability is a major
plus. But while surfers may not like the more aggressive salesmanship, they'd
better get used to it, analysts said.
"People are learning by watching all these online services go out of business
that, well, somebody has got to pay for this stuff," said Jonathan Gaw, an
analyst for IDC, a market research firm. "The more intrusive the ad the better,
from the advertiser's perspective."
So it would seem, judging by the dozens of examples now on the Web. At
Playboy.com, viewers have to watch a 25-second Jack Daniel's whiskey ad before
entering the site. Enlarged images of microscopic cells partially veil the
online encyclopedia Britannica.com in an ad for Norton antivirus software. And
on SportingNews.com, two basketball players and a runner holding a flag sprint
across the home page for 12 seconds in a pitch for Planters peanuts.
ANNOYING FOR WEB USERS
Not surprisingly, consumers are starting to complain.
"These ads are an in-your-face annoyance that you can't miss," said Gary
Ruskin, executive director for Commercial Alert, a group co-founded by Ralph
Nadar that opposes the proliferation of all kinds of advertising. "One wonders
whether Internet users are going to be bombarded with so many ads that they use
the Internet less."
These new ads, which began showing up within the past year, make up less than 5
percent of all online advertising, analysts said. But they agreed that the new
sales pitches are picking up steam.
"They're obviously starting to become a force," said Tamara Gaffney, an analyst
for Nielsen/NetRatings, an online audience measurement firm.
Making consumers sit through advertising is nothing new in the media world.
Television and radio shows are regularly interrupted by commercials, yet keep
their audiences.
Online advertising has tended to have been subtler, however. Banner ads, which
run across the top of a screen, and tower ads, which run down the side, have
gotten bigger lately, but they don't usually interfere with viewing.
Pop-up ads, which spring up on computer screens in separate browser windows and
sometimes block the site's pages, ushered in an era of intrusion around two
years ago. However, pop-ups can usually be dispatched within a few seconds.
WAYS TO AVOID ADS
The new ads are harder to get rid of. Some of them carry delete buttons, but
they're small and hard to find. In many cases, the ads lack a delete button
altogether, leaving no alternative for consumers but to wait for them to play
out and then vanish.
One way to get rid of these ads is to install ad-blocking software. But even
that is no guarantee that every floating ad will be eliminated.
For example, AdSubtract, blocking software manufactured by Intermute, was
initially useless against the pitch for Jack Daniel's whiskey on Playboy.com.
However, the company adjusted the software after a reporter's telephone call,
and the ad no longer appeared.
"We started seeing these new kinds of ads about nine months ago and immediately
got to work adjusting our software," said Ed English, chief executive for
Intermute. "We always have to work to keep up with the latest technology they
use."
Gerry Eramo, assistant general manager for interactive media services for
Panasonic, said the electronics manufacturer is pleased with the floating ads
it has run on Rivals.com, a sports Web site. One of the advertisements featured
a cartoon athlete catching a football thrown to him and then crashing into a
high definition television.
"It really does break through the clutter as long as you're careful in who you
are showing the ad to," Eramo said.
Many analysts and advertisers believe traditional Internet banners, by far the
most common style of marketing message on the Internet, are ineffective. They
say they are too small -- about the size of a fortune cookie message -- to
convey much information and leave little room for creativity beyond flashing
colors. The new class of online marketing has a greater impact, Eramo said.
The new ads are partly a consequence of new software, including DHMTL, that
made them easier to create. Hundreds of online destinations, including Salon.
com, CNN and MTV.com, are now willing to accept them, especially in a depressed
ad market.
BALANCING USER'S NEEDS
John Swartz, a regional vice president of sales for Yahoo, a Web portal based
in Sunnyvale that has featured several floating marketing campaigns, said the
demand for the new style of advertising is high. The new ads, he said,
allow companies to show off their products better and save consumers the
trouble of clicking through to another Web site for more detailed information.
But at the same time, Swartz said Yahoo is mindful of consumer friendliness.
For example, he said the new ads generally last less than 10 seconds and are
programmed to appear no more than three times per day per Yahoo user.
"We take the balancing of the user experience very seriously," Swartz said.
"Users give us feedback, and most has been positive."
Christine Mohan, a spokeswoman for the online arm of the New York Times, said
her company is always looking for new kinds of advertising to offer clients. In
many cases, products are marketed with the new generation of ads and
traditional banners on the same page, or through an entire section of the
online newspaper "to immerse users with the message wherever they go," she
said.
"We're a free site, and we believe in the media model and online advertising,"
Mohan said.
BUCKING THE TREND
On the other hand, some Internet companies have resisted leaping into more
intrusive advertising. Google, a search engine based in Mountain View, is
committed to selling text-only ads that do not interfere with consumers seeing
its search results page, said Cindy McCaffrey, a company spokeswoman.
"The faster we can get you to where you're going the more successful we are, "
McCaffrey said. "If we keep you on the site for 10 seconds while the ad is
downloading, then you're not getting a good user experience."
For dial-up users, commercials and billboards can take several seconds to
download, dragging out the ad even longer. Floating ads generally don't prolong
the download.
Eramo, from Panasonic, said what advertisers are really waiting for is the day
when most Internet users have speedy online connections. Internet advertising
will then be like interactive television commercials, he said, not just
cartoons on a computer screen.
E-mail Verne Kopytoff at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Online advertising's impact
Type of ad Portion of all impressions
Full banners 27 percent
Buttons 21 percent
Half banner 17 percent
Micro bars 11 percent
Skyscrapers 4 percent
All others 20 percent
(less than 5 percent are new generation ads)
Chronicle survey of analysts
.
Source: Jupiter Media Metrix (March 2002)
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle Page B - 1
4/19/02 8:41:14 AM, "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>gadalmightee, the on-line ads are getting obnoxious. Today, looking at the
>on-line version of BUSINESS WEEK, I see this damn animation showing acrobats
>doing tricks -- between my eyes and the text I wanted to read.
>
>Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>
>
