Highlighting the trend, 180solutions this week will begin promoting a downloadable program that purports to offer a gentler twist on "adware," providing users access to free music downloads and other content in exchange for the right to flash a limited number of ads onto their computer screens.
180solutions is treading on dangerous ground, given the growing consumer resistance to adware products and past criticism of its own n-Case product. But it has attracted a big backing, having recently scored $40m (£21.8m) in funding from Spectrum Equity Investors, a venture capital firm.
Another start-up, UK firm Vibrant Media, is making headway with a system that delivers ads through links attached to keywords in the text of news stories and other articles published on the Web. The system will debut in the United States next week, when Vibrant is expected to announce a high-profile partnership with search heavyweight Overture Services.
The announcements come amid a rebound in the online ad industry, which saw Web ad sales surge 38 percent in the fourth quarter to $2.2bn from the comparable period a year earlier, following years of declines. Analysts expect the market to rise by 10 percent or more for the full year in 2004, registering more than $8bn in sales.
"Where there's money, there's innovation, and these new firms will be presenting interesting new ways for advertisers to spend their hard cash," said Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester Research.
Marketers have long heralded the Internet as a sea change for the advertising industry, promising new techniques for delivering only those sales pitches that readers actually want to see. The reality has fallen far short, however, as advertisers shied away from the medium, and initial efforts from pioneers such as DoubleClick ran into privacy complaints.
