Enliven Offers Entry-Level Rich Media Banners

In an effort to reach advertisers who would usually use GIF banners, Excite@Home‘s Enliven division on Monday unveiled a rich media ad format — Enliven Effect — that offers some functionality, but not as much as its standard ads.

Ads created with Enliven Effect focus on the most popular functions — capturing email and US mailing addresses, expanding the ad’s real estate and printing from within the ad. Pre-assembled templates allow for the easy creation of the banners.

“Because Enliven now offers services that bridge the gap between GIFs and fully customized rich media ads, we have a range of solutions to meet the diverse needs of Internet advertisers,” said Scott Kliger, chief technology officer of Excite@Home’s (ATHM) Enliven.

“Enliven takes its past success and leverages the gained knowledge to determine what types of ad formats are most effective, allowing advertisers to receive improved results.”

While Enliven has established its reputation as the major player in the rich media space, BlueStreak.com has positioned itself as an easy-to-use solution. This new product, perhaps, will give Enliven that entry-level audience it’s seeking.

The company will promote the new ads through a co-op advertising partnership with Hewlett Packard Co. The program was developed by HP to push “print within the banner” functionality. The company is sponsoring the creative and production costs for about 25 advertisers that use the print feature within an Enliven Effect ad.