ShopLocal has announced a new, enhanced version of its Smart Media advertising units. The ads are highly interactive with product inventory, brands, maps and local store information. Here’s a sample ad from CompUSA and one from BestBuy:
These ads are similar in some respects to what Yahoo! has announced but yet to roll out with SmartAds, which offer dynamic/customized display advertising and represent the future of graphical advertising at Yahoo!. AdMission Corp. has a similar product with its Spotlight Ads that combines branding and local inventory information.
These types of dynamic display ads seek to capitalize on advertiser interest in online brand advertising but integrate direct response elements to improve performance and overcome traditional “banner blindness.” Display ads, including video, are the fastest growing category of Internet advertising and especially appealing to brand marketers shifting budget online (click to enlarge):
“Which medium will represent the largest percentage increase in spending this year for your brand (or your top client)?”
Source: BusinessWeek Future of Advertising Survey (2007)
Screenwerk 
July 27, 2007 at 1:39 pm
ShopLocal Enhances SmartMedia Platform
ShopLocal has announced a new, enhanced version of its Smart Media advertising units. The ads are highly interactive with product inventory, brands, maps and local store information.
July 28, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Very cool… we love how these ads bring so much relevant content right to the user’s fingertips.
August 1, 2007 at 12:56 pm
[…] Maps in Interactive Ads on Google Advertising is content is the mantra of search marketers (and others) everywhere. But the more “relevant” the ad becomes the more true that is. It’s also the case if the ad is interactive and allows users to gain helpful information or perform additional functions (see, e.g., ShopLocal’s SmartMedia). […]
February 26, 2008 at 6:58 pm
[…] This creates a very interesting situation and a push to make brand/display advertising online more effective — and in some sense more like search behaviorally. Behavioral targeting is one of the approaches widely embraced by marketers and publishers. However, it’s problematic because of tracking and privacy issues. The other approach, which is more interesting to me, is to turn display into directional marketing (See, e.g., Admission, Linkstorm and ShopLocal). […]