New Form of Video Advertising: The Clickable Canvas

For all of you who hate pre-roll, this article, which takes a look at the launch of an array of new video ad formats, from interactive product placements to video billboards, is for you. The USP of Innovid, the Israeli company behind the developments, is the “clickable canvas,” whereby the viewer sees entire surfaces within a video transformed into a 3-D interactive canvas. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/innovid-launches-new-form-of-video-advertising-the-clickable-canvas/

- Sam

XBOX assisting in voting drive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7576956.stm

Thanks to Alan King for sending me this link. XBOX has partnered with Rock the Vote to enable voter registration through XBOX Live!. In addition to the registration component, users will also be able to participate in polls and listing their voting intentions.

If this isn't an example of 'fish where the fish are', I don't know what is. This is a great example of an organization (Rock the Vote) realizing that in person sign ups on college campuses is not enough. Their previous work with MySpace shows that they aren't thinking in only one area as well.

What does this mean for advertising? I think that we should continue to try to work with the console manufacturers to push opportunities to get in front of their users. The gaming console is the future of the entertainment system and we should start testing messaging platforms to get ahead of the competition.

Rick