A new company wants to bring a not-so-innovative format to online advertising:a "deliberately interruptive" :30 ad spot -- just like the ones you get on your TV.
ShortTail Media plans to beta test its Digital 30 (D30) ad this summer, a full-screen interstitial that will run :30 and :15 second spots.
Mediaweek reports David Payne, former head of CNN.com, founded ShortTail and has been busy meeting with top-tier publishers to convince them to sign on for tests. Reuters has reportedly committed, while MSNBC.com and Weather.com are giving the proposal some serious thought.
ShortTail has reportedly promised frequency capping and limited inventory will be part of the package.
It'll be interesting to see if this flies, on several levels. Consumer acceptance is a biggie, of course. Thirty seconds is a long time to wait, post-click. Moreover, it's it's video, audio is part and parcel of the message. Given ShortTail is going after largely print publishers -- and presumably, the internet primetime, at-work audience, audio may not be what viewers ultimately get along with their video.
Then, there's the production side of the equation. It's common wisdom that simply repurposing TV ads for the Web is simple in concept, but translating images from a small to an even smaller screen is easier said than done. Are advertisers going to bite, and are they going to be willing to pay the extra production costs?
Time - and testing - will tell. Meanwhile, beware of formats dubbed "innovative" that are very obviously the same old, same old.
Reader comments (4)
7:29PM on 11th May 2009
..and at that time, I will stop visiting all sites showing these ads. The web should be navigable without that type of intrusion. It's the last bloody straw, etc...
Founder & Executive Chairman at MediaTrust
2:21AM on 12th May 2009
i dont think it will work. users behavior in online video is just not the same as traditional media. in fact its going further in the the opposite direction. the video ad and content need to be seen as one. ads are evolving to being more content then ads.
8:57AM on 12th May 2009
I disagree with using adverts to interupt web usage. I vote for no adverts! I personally use the web most hours of the day due to my job (Web Design). I do not wish to be interupted during research for my inspiration. Adverts are everywhere as it is! How dare they. Who is with me? I may start an online petition.
9:21AM on 12th May 2009
I'm not against adverts and I understand that people have to make money, but I think you have to be very careful about how you do it. If you wind up your visitors then there are plenty of other places to go instead.
People are now used to getting access to videos without having to wait and they don't have the patience required. I think you'd be shooting yourself in the foot if you implemented a system whereby they had to wait 30 second for their content to start or resume.
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