Life After People Destroys Wired.com

There has been a lot of talk lately bemoaning the lack of creativity in online advertising. For years the IAB has been working to standardize ad units in order to make it easier and more efficient for agencies to buy and negotiate online ads. However, some believe this standardization has led to less creative and engaging ads that are easier for consumers to ignore.

VideoEgg has been doing some really good work recently to combat this. Most of the VideoEgg ads I’ve noticed have been on TwitPic for clients like Honda and Dove. The ads expand to cover the screen and include video and multiple ways for users to engage with the ads. And that’s what these new units are all about, engagement.

Also, today there is a really interesting ad on Wired.com (I don’t believe this is from VideoEgg) for the History channel show Life After People. The ad ‘destroys’ and takes over Wired’s homepage. Users can then email a note to a friend telling them about the ad. While the creativity of the ad is very cool, there are a few pieces missing that I think would make this ad even more effective.

First, Life After People now has my full attention and interest. I’d love to be able to watch a preview of the show right in this ad unit. Second, give me a way to share this besides emailing one person. This surprised me more than anything else given the industry’s current obsession with Twitter. They easily could have included a simple button allowing people to share the ad via Twitter or Facebook. This just seems like a given.

Regardless, I’m glad to see the History channel and their agency pushing online creative and producing a really interesting ad for this new show. The ad definitely caught my attention and obviously prompted this post. This is the kind of ad that gets agencies and clients more excited about online display advertising.

There is one more thing that I think is worth mentioning. You will notice as you travel through Wired.com that standard IAB units are a significant part of History’s media buy. While this homepage destroyer ad is really cool and interesting, I’m sure it was quite expensive. By supplementing this creative with standard ad units, History is able to drive greater results and make the buy more efficient.