UNICAST BRINGS FULL SCREEN ADVERTISING TO ONLINE AD COMMUNITY Gold Standard Full Screen SUPERSTITIAL® Format Answers Demand from Advertisers for More Effective and Familiar, Television-like Formats New York, NY – April 28, 2003 -- In response to advertiser demand for more effective online ad formats that offer the same creative flexibility enjoyed by offline media, Unicast has today introduced the newest addition to its Online Format Suite, the Full Screen Superstitial®. The new unit is a full-screen, 15-second, 300k online ad format that [via Unicast’s patented delivery method] plays transitionally when consumers are moving between pages. “This format provides self evident proof that advertisers can now reach the user on the Internet with as much impact as they can reach the audience on television,” said Dick Hopple, Unicast Chairman and CEO. “Along with our Web site partners some of which have recently introduced [half-page] formats designed to make the online medium more understandable for advertisers, we are bringing this full screen format to market with the same intent. What we’re offering is proof, that advertisers can see with their own eyes, that the Internet can support the kinds of creative ideas they are used to delivering on Television, and that they don’t have to learn a whole new set of ‘tools’ to put those ideas in front of consumers.” Press release here. The New York Times has an article here (registration required). The gist of it is MSN, ESPN, Lycos, iVillage, and several others will be "testing out" these new internet commercials for six weeks. Let me say first and foremost, I hate intrusive advertising. I'm fine with targeted links and banners. If it's integrated into the webpage itself I'm happy to look at it. However, when someone starts hijacking my computer for pop-ups, pop-unders, flash animations, and now full screen commercials I tend to get quite irrate. Furthermore I believe the entire idea of comercials on the internet as ridiculous. I don't mind comercials on the TV for the simple fact that I'm not interacting with the TV, nor is it a multi-tasking enviroment. When I use the computer I usually have many windows open and if a company thinks they can make an advertisement the focus of my screen without a way to exit I will never, ever return to their site again. I don't know whose idea it was to port the idea of television comercials to the internet, but he should be shot. I'm more than happy to support webpages I visit that have targeted links and banners built into the web page, but if a company thinks their product/service is so important that they have to annoy, hassle, and bring ads without reprieve to me then they don't deserve my business.
Simple to eliminate though... Refuse to shop or visit sites which have this format and write a letter (a REAL letter, not an email) to the owner/ceo/president/whoever telling them why you will refuse to patronage their site. Those damned java ads like the ones plastered all over weather.com are bad enough, we don't need this full-screen crap.
Then all they have to do is put them into MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM, etc. Build them into the browser, etc. What are you going to do? Completely abandon the internet? I could see Microsoft putting it into a new Windows version, especially with how "media aware" they're trying to become. I don't know, I doubt it'd ever get that far, however, it's still raises the annoyance of having to put up with yet more ads and pop ups, etc.
The wonderful benefit of the Internet is that there's no need to turn off from your favourite sites just because they use intrusive advertising. Advertising has little to no effect on me, I usually just watch the ads on telly because I can't be bothered to change. All this BS about most of it being subconscious is crap and I can honestly say I buy based on brand reputation and not recognition. Therefore I see no need to watch advertising on the Internet, and we have the benefit of millions of techheads who all feel the same way. Those people are the ones who've pioneered pop-up blockers, spyware scanners and eradicators, DVD Region negation, so on and so forth. At this stage, I get very little spam, see next to no pop-ups and nothing installs itself on my system unless I want it to. Are people really telling me that these ads will get onto the desktops of the people who don't want it? So long as there's people willing to write the technology and release it into the public domain, you'll never have to be force fed anything over the Internet. Remember EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPT at delivering something people don't want over the 'net has been negated and will continue to be so. Until companies wake up and realise that you can't work that way, they'll keep losing money which is being pumped into developing technology which is useless.
I agree with KNA... There will be a way to bypass this stuff, but it IS annoying to have to think about it. As far as it being on ICQ, AIM, and the like, just use open source software. I really doubt that they're going to throw commercials within Firebird or Mozilla. If anything, these will be java triggered shockwave or flash commercials.
I fail to see any reason why a silly advertisement would make one buy something. If something takes up the full screen and tells me to buy something, no way i'd go anywhere near it, unless of course to boycott it.
People are inherently stupid. Subliminal messages in advertising has been (for the most part) removed not just because it's "wrong" but because its not required, and saves the company some money.
I'm udner the impression that the best way to sell something it so make it seem like a very good product made by a respected company. If an ad for it takes up my entire screen I know it's not and therefore would be discouraged form buying it.
Surely the use of an ad that takes over your PC to run full screen comes under the Computer Misuse Act or whatever it's called, the bit about using computer equipment without the permission of the owner. They're quick enough to prosecute anyone breaking into a site and defacing it, breaking into my computer and defacing it for 30 seconds is just as bad.
The interstitial is not something new, it's been around for a while. There is however a profound lack of understanding of how advertising works on the net. The fact that these big players are starting on interstitials proves that that isn't going to change any time soon, and the established marketing companies they use are still stuck in the 20th century and can't grasp the unique requirements of online advertising. Oh, and some marketers believe that X-10 had the most successful advertising online campaign ever (but they still went bust)...
Advertising success isn't measure dby how well (or poor) the product sold, but how wellt eh advertising was used, in teh case of X-10, they managed to plaster themselves EVERYWHERE. But it still falls under the poor idea bin. I mean, if you plaster dead bodies everywhere, it doesn't mean people are going to buy them. Full screen ads exist now, yes, but not in a large number, and it isn't the "trendy" thing for companies to do. Not yet anyways. However with teh current full screen ads, it isnt' to hard to avoid them or stop them pre-maturely. With locked out fullscreen ads, you'd be forced to sit there and watch them. Or at least not ba able to use the computer for that period of time.
You and kna are thinking techno-geek, Joe AOL Public is running the software from the install disk full stop. It's a fact that commercial TV and 99% of magazines can't run without advertising, and tbh I'm amazed at the amount of free entertainment online. It's logical that certain types of site won't happen without some pay-back; choice is to join & pay (like porn sites or The Times crossword) or put up with adverts. The commercial stations' Teletext is damned annoying with ads between sub-pages; the majority of viewers still use it.
