27 publishers with a reach of about 109 million unique visitors per month -- that's 66% of the total U.S. Internet audience -- have agreed to try one of three new online ad formats sometime before July. The publishers are all members of the online publishers association (OPA).
Here's how an OPA rep described the units:
The formats they've agreed on all have one trait in common: they are much bigger and more attention-grabbing than the banner, which is despised by publishers, advertisers and readers alike as an ad unit.
This heatmap image from a 2007 eye-tracking study
is perhapst the best illustration of why publishers and advertisers hate banners:
Here's what the Pushdown unit looks like closed and then open:
The OPA wasn't able work up any mocks for the other two new ad formats, but from what we can tell, they'll look remarkably similar to the units VideoEgg mocked-up for a recent presentation on the future of online advertising:
The 27 participating publishers are:
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