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Unicast Claims Success With Internet Commercials

Posted by timothy on from the what-else-would-they-claim dept.

LightForce3 writes "Remember that trial run of full-motion commercials on sites like ESPN.com and MSN? The BBC reports that Unicast, whose caching technology makes these ads work, is claiming a strong favorable response from Internet users who viewed the advertisements. It looks like they could now be making long-term deals with clients (the article mentions Forbes.com and weather.com). As a dialup user, I am less than thrilled about the idea of an extra 2 MB download each time I visit one of these sites."

4 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Suit speak by Underholdning · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An online survey of more than 3,500 users who saw the ads found that just 28% said they were annoying
    Ok, first of all, I'm pretty sure that number is way too low. But even if it's correct, would you place a technology on your website that's proven to annoy at least 1/3 of your potential customers?

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    Underholdning.info
  2. Only 28% of respondents were annoyed by TobascoKid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An online survey of more than 3,500 users who saw the ads found that just 28% said they were annoying.

    That's almost a third of those surveyed found the advertisments annoying. Who would want to piss off a third of thier users?

    And how do they count the number of users so annoyed that they go off the site and don't bother filling in the survey?

    Tk

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    At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.
  3. Re:Simple solution by Ilgaz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As a media worker, I am not against advertising...

    I only wonder 1 thing... Couldn't these ActiveX, JVM 1.1 geniuses who "invents" a thing which will result in more users filtering ads, code a small (64kb) bandwidth test BEFORE sending them 2mb?

  4. Re:Simple solution by oliverk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They do. Unicast and a couple of the others use a bandwidth checker to figure out if it's worth it to actually worth it to start downloading. It's how they're avoiding the problem of users lacking broadband. It's basically a "speed check" (I've used it in campaigns for Compaq...so you get the sense that this has been around since 2000/2001).

    Question then: has anyone experienced any bandwidth problems that are associated with these types of ads?

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