The Dragons of the online ad world are back again to pull apart the new ad formats out there.
Our second Digital Innovator's event of the year concentrated on the new innovative ad formats available on the web. Claiming the second Digital Innovators title was InSkin Media’s new ad delivery service that surrounds media players.
Previously the sound of the horn left presenters with holes in the ears; this time we took a lighter approach with a gong signaling the 5 minutes allocated for pitch time. Then the judges, aptly named ‘The Dragons’, were given another five minutes to interrogate the contenders. Our not so gruesome threesome included Sky’s Scott Gallacher, our very own Kieron Matthews, Ben Tompkins from Eden Ventures, whilst Nic Howell of NMA chaired proceedings.
Returning for the second time with their ‘in text video’ technology was Vibrant Media. Lee Brignell-Cash explained the intricacies of the tool, that double underlines words of importance to signify the presence of a short video, that when hovered over will expand to display a relevant advertisement.
Dean Donaldson pitched Eyeblaster’s new product, ‘Widget Ads’. It’s a service that enables display ads to be inserted in to a widget for friends to then talk expressively about. Another challenger for the award was ‘Coull Engage’, an interactive video ad tool. Claudia Giovannoni talked the audience through their new invention that lets consumers choose and tag different objects within video streams – this enables advertisers, publishers and creative agencies to easily create, control and monitor high user-engagement video campaigns.
InSkin Media were hailed comprehensive victors in the end. Patrick Knight (CEO of InSkin Media) presented their innovative tool that visibly wraps around media players and is clickable for the entire video duration is a unique new format. Advertisers can interact with consumers in a polite manner that enables them to take the initiative, no interference is experienced. The delivery format has witnessed click through rates of 4-19% for campaigns to date.
The informative and fun event was a success in identifying some of the new ad delivery formats for video content online, as without doubt video is set to become one of the highlights for 2008. Stay tuned for details of our next Digital Innovators event.
