Cooliris ads ad another layer to display advertising

Display advertising may get a bad rap for its lack of click-throughs, but one way to increase clicks is by making the advertising more interesting. And a new play by browser plug-in Cooliris is trying to do just that.

Cooliris is a browser extension for media viewng with a very shiny and slick interface. But the company also offers a way to access its content in a browser through display ads. And it is a product that has the potential to get web publishers very excited.

While other online advertisers struggle to sell off their content, Cooliris' summer ad inventory was completely sold out by July. 

The Cooliris media viewing experience is certainly distinctive. According to AdAge:

"The browser plug-in turns surfing through images into a "Minority Report"-like experience, letting people sweep through a wall of photos or videos with a mouse, rather than endlessly clicking "next" to browse from photo page to photo page."

The Cooliris plug-in gets downloaded 50,000 times a day. And web viewers that have it seem to care more about images and video than the average web surfer — they look at 12 times the amount of photo and video content.

Cooliris sells advertising against its plug-in content, but it's the ads sold in display units that could get interesting. Now viewers can surf Cooliris' content without having to deal with a download.

And they can look at a few ads while they're at it. Publishers add content into Cooliris' "embed wall," which allows users to surf through the company's 3D interface. Alongside that activity run display ads.

And brands seem to like the engagement on offer. Cooliris' ad campaign with Nissan for Infiniti found the advertiser dictating to publishers that they wanted to run alongside Cooliris' technology.

Sara Morton, OMD's director of digital strategy, got Nissan excited about using the technology. The Infiniti promotional campaign centered around Cooliris and required that publishers serve the entire unit instead of plain banner ads. She tells Clickz:

"We said, 'Let's all work together to do something you've never done on your site. Let's create an environment that is an a-ha experience.'"

As publishers start using Cooliris, the company can sell ads across its partner websites, which Cooliris is calling its "publisher network." Member sites include the Wall Street Journal and Conde Nast properties.

The more publishers that Cooliris works with, the more leverage the company will have with advertisers. And it might become more of a standard on computers as well. According to Clickz, the company is accelerating the adoption of its product by partnering with computer manufacturers to pre-bundle its client onto desktops.