How do you advertise on a Web-based instant messaging service without interrupting conversations and annoying the hell out of users? Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg thinks he has the answer: “There is a moment of boredom while they are waiting for a response, that is when they click on ads.” He’s observed this based on how people interact with the ads which began appearing on Meebo.com last March. Today, Meebo is creating an ad network across partner sites which use its new Community IM service, which ads a Meebo IM bar at the bottom of participating sites.
Visitors to one of the 85 partner sites which have implemented the Community IM product (including Current TV, DailyStrength, Flixster, and Webs.com) can chat with their IM buddies without leaving the sites. Today, Meebo is introducing new ad units which pop up along the bottom left of the browser, beginning with ads for the Toyota Piou and AT&Ts. For the Toyota ad, a little car icon pops up on the left of the Meebo IM bar, away from all of the chat activity on the bottom right. If you click on the car, a larger ad 900X400 pixel rich ad overlay opens up which can show a video or any number of interactive ads. “When they click we do not take them away from the conversation,” says Sternberg. During the whole time people is watching the ads, they can still chat with their friends through the Meebo IM column on the right.
These ads are similar to VideoEgg’s Twig Ad bar, except they are integrated directly into each site rather than use a frame overlay. But the opt-in nature of both types of ads are part of a general trend of giving consumers control over when and how marketing messages are presented to them.
Meebo says its IM service reaches 50 million people a month and can target ads on age, gender, or location. Sternberg says Meebo is seeing 1 percent clickthrough rates on the ads. But he is not without competitors. AOL is planning to offer its own IM bar to external sites through its Socialthing for Websites service, which presumably will also be connected to its ad network. The exchange with sites is that they get social IM features without having to reinvent the wheel, and they get a share of any IM-based ad revenue as well.
That’s some sneaky way of slipping in the ads.
Yes indeed and sneaky as hell!!! but they have no other way of generating revenue and if they don’t start producing… they may go through what’s happening at Mochi Media
“Sternberg says Meebo is seeing 1 percent clickthrough rates on the ads. But he is not without competitors” Isn’t Meebo just another ripoff of other products out there? How and why are they still in business? Give credit where credit is due Techcrunch.
No, we are one of the partners, and they are getting around 0.2 to 0.3 % click through.
And why exactly are they a ripoff? They were one of the earliest Web 2.0 companies, have done an amazing job with their UI/performance from the early days, pushed the envelope of what JavaScript+Browser can do, and built a really great company/culture. Now they are figuring out their revenue story too.
Credit where credit is due.
Not sure users clicking ads “because they are bored” is going to be of the best value to advertisers.
it’s certainly the best moment to attract attention to ’something else’. I’m confident it will work out well
Another “take your hand off the mouse” website. Good design, guys. Why not make the whole page a matrix of mouseover ads? Totally not annoying.
except that while i’m waiting for some slowpoke to type i read email, check blogs, do other stuff
I coordinate widespread panic and warfare, salivate over porn…
Then I burp and mommy changes me.
No, wait, they call that STEWIE.
The Toyota Piou? Wow, you guys scooped all the automotive blogs on this new model. I hope you post some spy shots.
This is a good idea. Just another way to monetize traffic and pageviews.
Not a good idea. Most of us do other stuff while waiting for a response.
Is it me, or is this starting to look like the early stages of the next .com crash? The pattern is familiar. 1) Give away stuff for free and run your company on VC for a few years. 2) Start putting in ads slowly to demonstrate to your investors that you do indeed have a viable business plan. 3) Increasingly annoy your customer base, which is now trained think that everything in the world should be free, by adding more and more ads. 4)Increase the annoyance factor of the ads by making them harder to avoid in a desperate attempt to generate revenue, since your VC is running out and your investors now want to see returns.
Like the last .com bust, a few companies will survive this one. But most of these sites are going away soon.
I am the only one who experiences ridiculous performance lags whenever Meebo decides to pop up an ad in my face (and by that I mean, whenever I accidentally rollover the bottom portion of the screen while IMing)?
don’t like it, it’s enough to see unwanted/unsolicited/distracting ads of all sorts at the bottom of the television screen, and
puhlease don’t let me see them on my mobile.
I am seeing these ads on TechCrunch now. Am I alone?
Yes indeed and sneaky as hell!!! but they have no other way of generating revenue and if they don’t start producing… they may go through what’s happening at Mochi Media
I hope you post some spy shots.
Could they possibly put something out that is any more obnoxious.