Here is a great essay on Interactive Advertising that was published in the Convergence Newsletter (from Newsplex at the University of South Carolina, vol. III, No.11, May 9 2006), that I thought I’d reblog here:
What is Interactive Advertising?
By Cheryl Harris, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina
With varying degrees of permitted response and functionality, interactive advertising offers viewers the opportunity to interact with ads by requesting additional information, expressing opinions and/or making purchases. Interactive advertising must be sufficiently persuasive to generate a response from the viewer. Increasingly, it appears that effective advertising in the convergent media age is advertising that has been customized or personalized to fit the current preferences of the viewer. In general, advertisers have learned that ?one size fits all? advertising generates much lower response rates than targeted ads. As the digital platforms for Interactive Television (ITV) or Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) come online, some advertisers are already experimenting with various types of customization and personalization that will be coupled with interactive response functions.