Netmercials - the next wave of advertising?


© Jennifer L. Huls
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Apr 11, 1999


What Is A Netmercial?

Netmercials are Flash movies or animation advertisements for companies or businesses. Just like a commercial is played before certain Television programs, so a Netmercial would precede a high traffic Web site.

How Does It Work?

  1. An Internet viewer types in a URL of a popular Web site. This web site has sold space to advertisers who have posted their Netmercials there.
  2. The viewer's system is read to determine their browser level and if they have the Shockwave plug-in.
  3. If so, they are presented with a Flash advertisement... a Netmercial.
  4. If not, they are presented with an animated GIF advertisement.
  5. When the Flash animation is over, the viewer is redirected to their original URL request.

Pros

Netmercials can offer a few advantages to those who purchase them, such as target marketing, product branding, exposure, etc. That is also what banner ads do.

Cons

I have to ask myself when I hear about Netmercials, "Do we really want the Internet to resemble T.V.? The Internet is supposed to be for exchanging information, not ads. It is still, above all, an educational tool.

I can't help but think that the Rupert Murdochs of the Internet world already have enough money. Why take a medium that almost anyone can afford to use and turn it into a Hollywood "sound stage" only Venture Capitalists can afford to indulge themselves in.

Also, why would you want to force surfers to watch netmercials? I can't help but think that would drive people away from highly visited web sites. It reminds of the "greeter" at the front of a GAP store, I know I try to avoid them when I go in but somehow they always seem to find you and I don't neccessarily want to be found on the Web.

To wrap it all up, when I read about this at a web designer's site, it enraged me. I thought at first, this is a money maker! Then I thought about it some more and realized that people, including myself, dislike commercials so much that we purchase VCRs that automatically fast forward

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages
1.   Dec 13, 1999 12:23 PM
I don't see netmercials being a bad thing. As the internet becomes more and more a consumer medium, subsidizing expenses through advertising is going to become extremely important, especially when it ...

-- posted by Lyric



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