The ads typically garner higher rates than more standard formats, depending on the campaign. In general, rich media ads command about $25 to $30 per thousand impressions, versus industry rates as low as $5 for standard formats. AOL said it plans to charge a premium for "beyond" banner formats. The AOL property will now sell rich media ads in banners, "out of the banner" and "beyond the banner" formats. For example, a demonstration of "beyond the banner" ads showed a chocolate truffle from Godiva that floated on the page and if the viewer clicked on the treat it would bring up a page with more information. "Our teams have been working for a while to build added technology, to carry rich media. We listened very carefully and understood that advertisers and agencies were appealing for this kind of service to be available on AOL," Graham said. Members of AOL 7.0, as well as of the upcoming 8.0 service set to be released late October, will be able to see the rich media ads. Macintosh users who subscribe to AOL will not be able to see the ads. Still, analysts say the technology could alienate members. AOL teamed with Viewpoint to make the advertising viewable to its dial-up customers, which account for about 77 percent of its members, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Those customers are usually the hardest hit by added technology on the screen. "Even if AOL decided not to use pop-ups, rich media will still slow down the experience," said Denise Garcia, analyst with research firm GartnerG2. "They got away with not doing this before because they had such massive reach, but now they have to do this to keep themselves in the mix."
For everything Internet-related, from the latest legal and policy-related news, to domain name updates, see ZDNet UK's Internet News Section.
Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum.
Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.
