Bank of America, Cleveland Clinic, CNA, Frito-Lay, and Mercedes-Benz Leveraging New Formats to Achieve Online Marketing Goals
NEW YORK, NY – The Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced a group of leading brands implementing the new ad units across OPA member sites. The units, which were originally announced in March, are designed to help marketers deliver their brand experiences directly on the pages of these rich content sites. Today, a total of 37 OPA member companies are making the units available and several are running major advertising campaigns across a variety of sectors including consumer packaged goods, automotive, and financial.
“We believe that the new OPA formats will allow us to incorporate our brand messages more creatively and with higher impact,” said Jen McDonald, SVP digital marketing, Bank of America. “The new format allows us to take advantage of an environment where consumers are already spending a lot of time with content to deliver an interactive brand experience.”
Some of the brands leveraging the new OPA ad units include:
Bank of America will run the Pushdown on CNN.com and Time.com
Cleveland Clinic will run the Fixed Panel on NYTimes.com
CNA is running the Pushdown on Bizjournals.com
Frito-Lay ran the Pushdown on Discovery’s PlanetGreen.com in the second quarter of 2009
Mercedes-Benz will run various OPA units on FOXSports.com, msnbc.com, NYTimes.com, Reuters.com, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post
“The new ad formats really struck a chord with the industry because they represented a change in the way marketers and agencies think about digital ads and new ways of delivering engaging brand campaigns,” said Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association. “The caliber of the brands actively leveraging the new formats is impressive and our members are working hand-in-hand with agencies and marketers to provide the right tools for them to connect effectively with their readers.”
The OPA ad units include:
The Fixed Panel: 336 wide x 700 tall, remains constant as the user scrolls to the top and bottom of the page
The XXL Box: 468 wide x 648 tall, opens for seven seconds to 936 wide x 648 tall with 1/24x frequency
The Pushdown: 970 wide x 418 tall, opens to display the advertisement and then after seven seconds rolls up to 970 wide x 66 tall, with 1/24x frequency.
“The new OPA ad formats take advantage of the immersive nature of digital,” Julie Weitzner, vice president of media for Razorfish, one of the largest digital marketing companies in the world. “With these new ad formats, digital advertising can be a more interactive, engaging consumer experience while also delivering a more meaningful expression of a company’s brand.”
Participating members rose to 37 from 24 originally announced including: About.com, ABCNews.com, American Express Publishing, BabyCenter, Beliefnet, Bizjournals, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, CBS Interactive, CNN.com, Condé Nast Digital, Discovery Communications, Disney Online, ESPN, Forbes.com, FOXNews Digital, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., HouseStuffWorks, IDG, iVillage Network, Lifetime Digital, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Meredith Interactive, msnbc.com, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, National Geographic, New York Media, The New York Times, Reed Business Information, Thomson Reuters, Time Inc., TopTenReviews, USA Today, Wall Street Journal Digital Network, The Washington Post, and Weather.com. In May 2009, these publishers had a combined, unduplicated reach of 132.1 million visitors, or 68% percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. This group of sites also represents 8.1 billion total minutes of time spent during the month (according to comScore MediaMetrix).
