New "Transitional" Interstitial Technology Launched

Unicast Communications Corp. in Greenwich, CT rolled out a Web advertising solution that allows Web sites and advertisers to play sophisticated, large file advertisements between page views in pop up windows.

Called AdController 2.0, the product is an intelligent, persistent Java agent that enables ads of any file size (but initially limited to 70K) to run with full-motion simulation and sound, the company said.

As an interstitial, it does not interfere with the user’s editorial experience.

Said Richard Hopple, chairman and CEO, of Unicast: “Our advertising solution goes far beyond banners and today’s interstitials by offering new formats like “transitionals” that were never before possible. AdController allows advertisers to produce one ad and run it on any site, thus eliminating the need to develop multiple ad versions and to rewrite code for multiple sites. And because AdController is activated by a single line of code inserted into Web pages in the same way as banners, it eliminates any costly rewriting of code by Web sites.”

AdController works in the user’s browser so it enables more accurate measurement of impressions, the company said. It counts and reports only impressions where a viewer has actually seen an ad, including ads behind proxy servers.

Advertisers have access to online reports that organize the data for each ad across all participating Web sites, including the length of time spent with the ad and clickthrough performance. The product uses newly developed technology that avoids the latency and variable delay associated with streaming technology, the company said.

The “transitional” ad pops open in a Java window and plays out of a browser cache for a fixed period of time, generally 10 to 20 seconds. The ad may have any rectangular dimension and can open in any position on the screen that is mutually acceptable to the advertiser and the Web site.

Available immediately, AdController will be licensed free to Web sites. Advertisers will be charged $0.005 per serve.

Unicast is a joint venture between the MacManus Group, parent of Darcy Masius Benton & Bowles and BBN, now GTE Internetworking.