mediaFORGE has launched a new interactive ad platform that marries banner ads and widgets.
mediaFORGE’s widget focused offering adds fully customizable widgets as a rollover to traditional ads. As visitors roll over the ad, a flash-based widget appears allowing users interact with content, be it shopping, browsing specials, deals, viewing videos or pictures, or listening to music. The company claims the ads “foster an enjoyable user experience.”
Launch partners include Overstock.com, who is using the technology to embed product search, and SkullCandy, who have added a MySpace media player to its online banner ads.
It’s hard to describe the offering without examples; I whipped together a short demo video above that shows how they work. We’ve seen transactional banners previously and they haven’t taken the world by storm; mediaFORGE’s emphasis on widgets marries existing concepts (and campaigns) into banner ads so they may have better luck in carving out a market.
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These are great widgets - I hate the traditional rollovers always getting in the way. They can offer much smaller spaces with big content… useful in places like facebook perhaps?
great narration duncan!
Now that is a really kool idea… very innovative…
I don’t understand searching overstock on a third party website. If I’m going to search for items on Overstock…I’m going to Overstock.
I like widgets that keep visitors on the site, but I think the Overstock widget is missing the point.
I really like the other widget. That is a good idea, that is something I would use
@#4 put yourself on the marketing team at overstock and tell me the widget does not beat a standard banner ad…. your statement assumes they expect people who already have an interest in searching their database to go looking at websites until they happen upon an ad widget… that is flawed. The concept is that web surfers will see the advert, and as they go to click it (yeah, they get clicked) it will instead present ways to interact with overstock without leaving your current page… it’s more inviting and can potentially lead to more conversions.
similar thought processes prevented a lot of people from capitalizing on the heyday of banner advertising… but i guess that’s ok… if everybody bought into the money maker from day one there would be less money in pockets when the take is divided up among those who know a smart move when they see one.
There is nothing new here. This is slapping the label “widget” on what is an already-established form of rich media placement – the microsite. I think the only spin they’re taking is trying to attract e-commerce sites to use these kinds of banners for remote site interaction, instead of just being a branding piece.
#6 I 2nd the motion. I am tired of ad placement being relabeled as a “widget” and the developer claiming something new.
Nope nothing new here. \
PS - Duncan you have an canny ability to NOT recognize the repackaging of old ideas. I thought after a year of writing about this space you would have learned something
@ 5 Matt - you’re a typical Web 2.0 idiot. Most Web 2.0 idiot and people who are actually technically savvy (because Web 2.0 idiots just use iPhones and terminology like “widget”) don’t click on ads to begin with so this won’t change your buying habits.
The people who tend to click on web advertising tend not to be technically savvy and will find such “widgets” complicated.
@ 8 dotw - you are correct.
@ Duncan Riley - please find something interesting to comment on.
That is very cool, I wonder if ads will be able to detect roll overs though.
-To make money online
http://mikesmoneyclub.blogspot.com
dotw 8
which part of “We’ve seen transactional banners previously” did you not understand?
@#9 i’ll take being a web2.0 idiot over being a troll any day.
@ 12 Matt
I suppose that also means you’d rather take having a small brain.
It’s funny how anyone with criticism becomes a troll.
It’s also funny how a lot of Web 2.0 types argue semantics rather than focusing on core business issues because they despise “MBA types” so much. Many Web 2.0 types are actually MBAs who don’t understand what making money means.
These are the same people who are hating on Angie’s List. God forbid anyone charge money for a valuable service! Gasp.
Really cool implementation but does that actually produce more sales.
Quite similiar like Advertlets.com from Malaysia.
I work for mediaFORGE, so maybe I can add some color to the conversation,
specifically as it relates to eCommerce widgets. What sets mediaFORGE apart
is our unique desktop functionality. Duncan did a great job of showing how
the widget ads work within the display-ad environment, which is tremendously
valuable for distributing a widget. What he didn’t show off is the widget
functioning on the desktop. So, nothing new about a desktop widget except
the mediaFORGE desktop widget is bundled with a proprietary notifications
technology that allows users to receive relevant offers on their desktop.
It functions similarly to the Southwest Ding Widget and Woot. Our platform
makes this functionality, along with the distribution method, immediately
available to all eCommerce brands. How valuable is that one to one
relationship to the brand? Even if it’s only several thousand users, they
now have a new, impulse oriented channel to push behaviorally targeted
offers to customers who want them.
Amen, Brett Walker.
Am interested in the actual install/uninstall rate of the desktop widget.
Rhett, as a standard corporate shill, we’d all expect you to think this is tremedously valuable, but why should we care? What would make a person download this widget to their desktop? Especially from Overstock? I don’t think you understand consumer behaviour. Convince me I’m wrong.