Though banner ads have been around the longest and are clearly prevalent on the Internet, they have come to be viewed as largely ineffective and do not take advantage of the dynamics of the medium. A natural extension to the banner model then, for those still interested in a low-cost, low-risk solution, is to make advertisements more interactive. New capabilities using Java technology allow sound, animation and video to be incorporated into advertisements which are then, presumably, more engaging to the user. This model is one of several attempts to reconcile the Internet’s "television-like" or broadcast qualities with those of traditional print advertising.

Television-Like Ads

One prime example of this model can be found at the Berkeley Systems, Inc. website. Berkeley Systems develops and markets multimedia entertainment software. In December of 1996, the company launched a free, on-line entertainment network, beZerk, which features regular programming of its pop-culture trivia game, You Don’t Know Jack, as its anchor program. The site also features entertainment content such as games, brain teasers, movie reviews, sitcoms and soap operas.

True to its TV-like model, beZerk incorporates advertising by showing television-like spot commercials. Audio and animation are combined to produce full-screen ads much like regular television commercials. (Their list of advertising partners include well-known names such as 7-Up, Cuervo Gold and Electra Records.)

To play the game, users must register with the website at which point they can then download game questions. These questions are accompanied by interstitial advertisement(s) – the sponsor(s) for that week. In this manner, sponsors get high quality ad time while reaching consumers via a relatively non-intrusive interaction, and if the number of registered users is any measure effectiveness, advertisers are getting their money’s worth. By early January 1997, beZerk had registered over 100,000 players for its game.

Intrusive Advertising

Unlike the TV-style ads of Berkeley Systems, other companies are pushing the advertising envelope by using true television ad models which are far more intrusive. As is the case when watching TV, "Intrusive advertising interrupts users’ activity and forces them to view a sponsor’s message" , prior to gaining access to the requested content.

ICon CMT Corp. has two sites that implement this model: "Word" and "Charged". Advertisers include Altoids, Tanqueray, and Levi’s. The upside to this model is that it gets around the issue of self-selection. The down side is that it’s annoying. ICon CMT is convinced, however, that as audio capabilities become embedded in browsers, true multimedia intrusive ads will surface and move the Web toward a TV-type model.