New Net ads vie for eyeballs

Yahoo! and design agency One Media push the artistic envelope with a series of ads

From Marsha Walton
CNN Science and Technology

(CNN) -- There's a fine line between innovative and obnoxious, and millions of Internet users are now making that distinction as they encounter a new wave of online advertising.

The ads have names like "skyscrapers," "pop-ups," "pop-unders," "interstitials" and "superstitials." But it's not just the sizes that are new; unlike the static, horizontal banner ads that many tend to glaze over while surfing, these new spots move, fly, flash and expand. Their creators are no longer just Web designers and advertising agencies, but artists, architects and fashion designers.

"There are very amazing things we can do with technology today," says Melissa Honabach, chief operating officer of Ant Farm Interactive. "We can put coupons into a banner; we can use audio and video, we have the ability to generate an ad that updates its content every few minutes."

Yahoo!, for example, has teamed up with the design agency One Media to create a series of ads that pushed the artistic envelope.

Luanne Calvert says Internet ads are making a transition to 'info-tainment'

"We've shown the ads that are available to people in the advertising agencies and to creative people. The reaction has been, 'Oh, my gosh, I didn't know you could do this on the Internet,'" said Luanne Calvert, Yahoo!'s media director.

Calvert says Internet ads are now beginning the same transition that television commercials did from their rudimentary black and white pitches to the "info-tainment" they now provide.

"I think that consumers will pay attention to what interests them, and now we have a lot more tools available to actually entertain, to make an emotional connection, and really also sell to a consumer audience," she said.

But some ad campaigns feel like the user is being trapped in a spider's web instead of breezily surfing the World Wide Web.

"I don't like things that are invasive to the customer experience," says Michael Koziol, CEO of Ant Farm Interactive. "Because you're so eager to get rid of these ads and just click them to make them go away, you rarely remember who the advertiser was."

Pop-up ads

Ant Farm works with clients on what it believes are more productive displays, such as the "expanding banner ad."

"I roll over the banner, and it's kind of like a micro Web site within the banner ad. It gives you more information; all the links are live, and they all take you to the Web site," said Koziol.

Besides making the Internet a little more interesting and edgy, this new round of ads provide opportunity for advertisers.

"I think the financial payoff for advertisers is enormous," says Dana Lyon, CEO of One Media. "They can be extremely targeted. And the audiences on the Web are instantly worldwide, so if you are a global brand, it has fabulous implications, proving it's well worth advertising on the Web."