Online marketers love to bemoan the deficiencies of the banner
ad.
Compare it to a TV spot and it’s low-involvement. Compare it to a print ad
and the creative options are limited.
Worst of all, the old conundrum remains that to get someone to click
through a banner and follow a call to action you have to pull them away
from whatever it was they were doing in the first place: that’s not ideal
for the consumer, and it’s a worry for whichever media owner’s site they
were surfing to start with.
But suppose online ads were a little more integrated with their
environment? If you leaf through a magazine like GQ, the glossy ads and
glossy editorial features feel like complementary parts of the whole. So
is there a way to achieve that sort of relationship online?
Youth site iFuse has taken a small step in that direction by devising a
proprietary ad format christened the Flashmercial.
It is smaller than regular banners and uses Flash animation and audio
(optimized for 56K connections) to produce simple mini-commercials. Best
of all, the ads appear alongside site content in frames that match the
design style of the site, with similar graphic devices and buttons
offering users a choice of which ad they want to run.
Why we like it:
Making ads a more integrated part of a web page has its risks. Users have
to be clear where content ends and marketing messages begin. But iFuse has
got the balance about right. And since the site’s content is heavy on
Flash animation content, it’s a fair assumption that its users will be
intrigued by ads that have the same style, and consequently become a bit
more involved.
What’s more, iFuse is producing the ads, which means closer ties to
clients, who so far include Nestle confectionery brands, Nike, Rolling
Stone and Estee Lauder.
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