Skins
What they are. A skin changes the look and feel of the media player on your computer. They are usually composed of art, media and text that are combined to create a new appearance for the player itself or create a frame around the player. For example, you could watch a clip from your favorite television show online, and instead of just having it play within a straight-up, no-frills embedded Windows Media Player, it plays within a WMP screen that is framed by an ad for the Nintendo Wii, NASCAR or Sprite.
How they work. Skins offer a range of experiences, depending upon the advertiser's needs and budget and what the ad serving company can support. At its most basic level a skin can function similarly to a billboard: a solid, static image that remains on screen for as long as the video plays. Better than a billboard, however, the user can click anywhere on the skin and open a new browser window that leads to the advertiser's website. More complex skins can contain multiple clickable areas; for example, to lead to more than one product or a special promotional site. Others can change not only the way the media player looks, but how it functions as well.
A similar interactive advertising option is a "homepage takeover." Commonly seen on social networking sites, the homepage takeover replaces the background of a website with artwork and messaging about a particular product. Fox has made good use of takeovers on its MySpace site, which frequently transforms into advertisements for its movies and television series.
Takeaway. If what your campaign needs is straight-up brand awareness, skins offer a great opportunity. Your message and artwork are constantly visible for the duration of the video experience and there is minimal to no clutter. Skins tend to garner great recall and clickthrough rates, especially when framed around content that speaks to the advertiser's core demographic. For this reason they also demand a higher CPM than the average online ad unit. When used in conjunction with a short pre- or post-roll video spots, the results tend to be powerfully effective. Perhaps most importantly, skins are among the least disruptive to the user experience, which is supremely important when disruptive ads lead to immediate and harsh adverse reactions.
"Constant data and user feedback gives us a lot of information day in and day out that allows us to grow and evolve what we offer," says video site Heavy.com's Chief Marketing Officer Eric Hadley. "Because there is no proven standard yet, we have the ability to experiment to make sure both the advertiser and the user have a good experience."
