Net ads enter new dimension

NEWS

The bells and whistles of online advertising are about to get louder. EyeWonder, which makes video and audio streaming ad technology, said on Thursday that it has signed on 50 new customers, including The Wall Street Journal Online, Forbes.com, eUniverse, the World Wrestling Federation and the Tribune newspapers. Through the agreements, the companies can resell EyeWonder's technology to advertising customers. The Atlanta-based company's software lets marketers air TV-like broadcasts in Web ads, including banners and pop-up windows. Through Java, a programming language for adding animation and other action to Web sites, the streaming ads run without a separate player, or plug-in. Most of the ads play sound and video automatically once a Web surfer opens the hosted page. Advertisers increasingly see technology that infuses sound and animation into their Net pitches as a way of transcending the flat computer screen. Since the online ad market fell last year, Net publishers have been overtly accommodating these wishes with larger, flashier formats and technology that can mimic traditional mediums. Costs go up for production and delivery of such "rich media" ads. EyeWonder ads, for example, typically sell for 50 percent more than the average cost of a standard banner. But ad agency executives say the promotions often garner response rates that make the effort worthwhile. John Keck, interactive media director for Foote Cone & Belding, called this the year of rich media and video streaming. "As we respond to client demand to move the Web beyond the banner, almost everything we do know has an element of rich media and streaming technology," said Keck, whose agency plans ad campaigns for Compaq Computer and Taco Bell, among others. "We won't do a logo now that doesn't have something cool in it." Still, Net researchers have long predicted streaming video technology and rich-media ads will comprise a mere fraction of the market. Jupiter Media Metrix estimates that streaming video ads will make up 9 percent of the market in 2005, compared with 2 percent in 2001. Rich-media ads, which include Flash animation and Dynamic HTML, will comprise about 19 percent of the online advertising by 2005. Despite such slim estimates, EyeWonder has grown exponentially since it launched its ad technology last May. Company chief executive John Vincent said that since the end of December, the number of ads it serves and the new customers on board have compounded by 50 percent a month. It has inked deals with major ad-serving companies including 24/7 Real Media and DoubleClick, Vincent said. It has also signed on many other large Web publishers, including the New York Times Digital, which used EyeWonder to air 3-minute clips for the film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". "We built a technology that allowed the reuse of content that had significant capital investment to create, such as General Motors' television spot," Vincent said. Nearly all of EyeWonder's customers re-purpose video from TV campaigns, Vincent said, adding that it costs less than $750 (£525) to convert a TV spot for the Web. Demand for flashier online ads has driven many new products. In January, New York-based Unicast, the producer of a TV-like pop-up it calls the "superstitial", introduced an expanded format that caters to TV advertisers. Shortly after, Unicast signed a deal with technology provider Klipmart to inject its ads with Java-based streaming similar to EyeWonder's technology. The company's newly launched Superstitial 300 lets marketers convert 30-second TV commercials into Web ads and gives them bigger file sizes to work with. Unicast's format is sold by more than 800 Web sites and ad networks, including DoubleClick and Terra Lycos.

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.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

27 minutes ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

3 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

3 hours ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

4 hours ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

5 hours ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

6 hours ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

6 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

6 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

For Gnome 2 die-hards, it is possible to add icons to the bottom panel (or top top panel, if you prefer) which provide the exact Gnome 2...

7 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Your comments would seem pretty naive and immature. Your 'solution' appears to be, "gee, let's all just give in to the hackers and give them...

7 hours ago by ramwellian on Cloud computing security: no more oxymoron?

"Interesting thought ... If you installed Win7 as a dual boot on a machine that previously only had Linux, and it wrecked your Linux installation,...

7 hours ago by BugStalker on Windows 7 Declares War on GRUB

This is an excellent summary of Ubuntu and Mint and the interface differences between them. Most such articles take a very partisan position for...

7 hours ago by whs001 on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

@ewallace. Not so clear. Anyone can obtain the text, for example from here http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2379. I support ACTA so long as it and...

8 hours ago by Moley on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

I think WinRT is fantastic. I just wish it was an option for people that didn't want to go through Microsoft's App Store with its attendant...

11 hours ago by 45283 on Why Windows 8 needs architectural hygiene for WOA

Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in? And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has...

12 hours ago by Burn-IT on Police set to launch three £30m e-crime hubs

Just to be clear, nobody knows what is in the text of ACTA, here is a photograph of the text of ACTA http://twitpic.com/8h9iju as submitted to the...

12 hours ago by ewallace on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

Unfortunately main issue is that ASUS is refusing to accept that they make some mistake on this version of asus Transformer prime. 1 - GPS sensor...

13 hours ago by fgvrg56 on Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?

@Marcus A fair question. Just talked with Archos which said it was working on an announcement for next week....

14 hours ago by Ben Woods on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Any update on this, considering the claimed "first week of February"?

15 hours ago by Marcus Karlsson via Facebook on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Bill Goodrich : Just as al_langevin pointed out, with Windows Server 2008 there is no Services for Macintosh anymore. It's gone, not available....

24 hours ago by apexwm on Windows Server 2008 drops the ball for Mac compatibility

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Net ads enter new dimension

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Sainsbury's sexy SMS job ad causes complaints

The battle over getting to know you

Ofcom to make it easier to change broadband service

Google set to build backbone of its 1Gbps fibre network

Nicira reveals network virtualisation details

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Networking

Ofcom to make it easier to change broadband service

Google set to build backbone of its 1Gbps fibre network

Nicira reveals network virtualisation details

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Technical MI Manager - 50-60k - Leeds

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Case study: How cloud enables growth

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Infrastructure / Networking

Net ads enter new dimension

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Networking

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features