Instant Banner Change Technology Coming

Time Inc. New Media and its digital marketing agency, Darwin Digital, part of Saatchi &
Saatchi, are expected to announce a new technology to instantly change banner
ad content across a variety of Web sites.

“The Web is by nature instantaneous,” Hala Makowska, vice president for brand
development at Time Inc. New Media, told the New York Times. “So we thought,
‘Why can’t we create a banner that lets people know the news
instantaneously?'”

Both ad and news functions are expected to be available. Many banners
currently require substantial lead time before content changes can be made.
“Right now the entire process of advertising online is very offline,” said
Daniel Reznick, chief technology officer at Darwin Digital, which developed
the NOW banner.

Darwin Digital is using a customized Java technology to build the new NOW
banners, as they are called. Reznick declined to discuss details.

The NOW banners are to appear at first on Pathfinder, Yahoo!, and Lycos.

Potential uses include news delivery as well as alerting consumers to
limited-time or time-sensitive offers like sales, rebates, coupons, etc.