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April 08, 2007
Site Takeover of USPS.GOV!
This is amazing to see:
Visit usps.gov - Enlarge image
When I started working on online ads, it was acknowledged that c|net.com was one of the most innovative in online advertising. Then came the portals, and pushed by all the advertising technology companies like Eyeblaster.com and Pointroll.com. We'd all be doing floating ads and site takeovers, popups and popunders, expanding ads, video ads and wondering what our users were thinking about all these things flying around on their pages.
However, it was only those companies that were innovative and daring enough, and desperate enough for revenue, that would try these ideas. Some worked, some didn't. But pretty much everything generated revenue. Some of the older institutions would never try these ideas. They worried about annoying users or creating experiences that would degrade trust of their users. For the most part, they were right. But sometimes we found they were wrong.
It's hard to predict what users think. The world keeps changing and users' preferences and tolerances change as the internet presents experiences that, in the beginning, are unique and potentially shocking, but then over time become commonplace.
What does this say about the internet when a venerable organization such as the United States Post Office joins the online advertising revolution-now-become-commonplace and places a site takeover on their top page?
Posted by dshen at April 8, 2007 07:35 AM
Comments
i'd actually roll back the clock a few years and note that the post office has been "for sale" for a while now. Their most valuable property isn't their webpage but postage stamps. And the Elvis stamp really saw the first move towards a "let's sell more of these to collectors)" mentality. Since then they've moved more and more commercial in their stamps, finally now with the personalized photo stamp. Now that's an impressive ad unit!
BTW, the R2D2 mailboxes are great. I'm not a star wars fan but ran to get my picture taken with one.
Posted by: hunter at April 8, 2007 08:47 AM
