ZDNet Offering Advertisers 'Extramercials'

Ziff-Davis said that ZDNet has developed the “Extramercial,” a form of Web advertising that uses what it calls “Extra,” the three-inch-wide column of frequently unused space to the right of Internet pages.

Extramercials, which are powered by Dynamic HTML (DHTML) technology, are placed within this space in the form of a microbutton that links users to a full-column ad.

Compaq Computer Corp. signed on as the first to take advantage of the new ad space with a campaign launching this month on the ZDNet homepage.

ZDNet has already been highlighting a range of content in this Extra space, including editorial features on its ZDNN news site and registration information on its homepage.

By placing DHTML ads in the Extra column, ZDNet said, advertisers gain the ability to expand their creative real estate, and un-intrusively increase the impact of their messages.

Extramercials are bigger than standard Web ad banners, and therefore allow for multiple links within a single campaign.

Web users are able to get to the heart of the ad campaign without having to leave the content page they are on.

“ZDNet has forged a reputation within the ad community as a proponent for the advancement of Web advertising,” said Barry Briggs, vice president of advertising sales and marketing for ZDNet. “We’re constantly looking for ways to help our advertisers increase the impact of their messaging, and we have challenged our creative and technology departments to develop more efficient and effective implementations. The Extramercial innovation. . . is exemplary of this initiative.”

Extramercials can only be viewed using the latest 4.0 versions of Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. ZDNet said it is planning to expand the inclusion of the Extra column–and thus the Extramercial ad inventory–onto several key parts of the site by the end of the year.