Intel Uses Nearly-new Ad Units for Yahoo! Takeover

If you find yourself at Yahoo!’s home page on Thursday, you’ll see Intel’s implementation of what Yahoo! calls its “Expando East” and “floating element” ad units. In non-Yahoo-ese, that’s a 300×250 rich media ad down the right side of the page, which resolves to 300×100, along with a floating rich media unit that moves around the page outside the traditional ad space. The implementation has only been done once before, by Pepsi’s Mt. Dew in August. The ad, featuring pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, is part of its new Centrino campaign pushing the entertainment power of its latest processors, and it really is a break from the specs-based ads most tech companies use, or even from Intel’s own surreal Blue Man Group ads.

“A lot of technology advertisers will do more traditional advertising — the ‘speeds and feeds’ kind of thing,” Elizabeth Harz, category development officer for technology at Yahoo!, told ClickZ News. “This is a great example of a marketer talking about the benefits of technology, and really making the connection between technology and life benefits, instead of technology for technology’s sake.”