Advertain.com Offers Viral Marketing Product for B2B Clients

Advertain.com — a Web site where users rate and recommend multimedia advertisements and branded games (AKA “advertainment”) — announced Monday that it will offer a Flash-based cartoon postcard for business clients.

Its first effort, “Happy Endings Aloha”, promotes an online lottery for a Hawaiian vacation for two co-branded clients, digital animation house wildbrain.com and free graphics site FlamingText.com.

Consumers are encouraged to customize the storyline of the cartoon and forward it to acquaintances. Recipients’ names can also be included in the cartoon’s text titles.

E-mail addresses are collected as recipients are offered the opportunity to opt-in to newsletters.

Advertain.com said the cartoon will be the beginning of a B2B effort to create customized Flash cartoons with similar potential for viral marketing. Currently, the site provides business clients with “advertainment” market research based on its user ratings.

“The movie postcard promotion offered by Advertain.com has added to the fun, entertainment experience delivered at wildbrain.com,” said wildbrain.com advertising director Ed Ramirez. “We value this very highly, as we’re in this business to entertain the masses with quality animation content.”

“Engaging our viewers to create, interact and share a rich media experience reminds us of what makes the Web so different from all other media,” he said.

“We are delighted by the initial market response,” said Advertain.com president A. Cage. “To entertain the viewer while promoting corporate branding and messaging is what Advertain.com and ‘advertainment’ is all about.”

Advertain.com is the latest company to promote a personalized, rich media direct email product.

Last week, Dynamics Direct announced a system in which customer database information — and therefore, personalized information — can be integrated into streaming Flash emails.

That service is similar to those provided by RadicalMail and MindArrow Systems.