Road blocks, home page takeovers and the user experience: sometimes louder does not mean better.

It used to be that a simple image on a Web site could be enough to attract attention. In the early days of the Web, so much of the content was text (and so much still is, by the way) that the slightest clearing in the obscured woods of syntax was a welcome reprieve.

But the online advertising arms race has escalated to a fever pitch. These days, in order to get in front of the content and rise above the din of the other advertisers it is now necessary to do one of two things: either be more clever and sublime in how one addresses an audience or be the biggest voice in the crowd of messages. The former is nuanced and difficult, which means the latter is the winning approach most advertisers take.

The bigger voice approach works, of course. It has for years in other media; why should the effects be any different online?

What have become among the most outstanding formats for online advertising are the Home Page Takeover and the Roadblock.

Both these formats have been at the disposal of online media planners and buyers for a couple of years now. With greater competition for attention in all media channels, including online, the more adventurous (and deeper-pocketed) marketers have to go for bigger, better real estate to attract attention. Pepsi-Co and Ford and Frito-Lay have been seen on the Yahoo! home page on more than one occasion. Pharmaceutical and auto manufacturers have used roadblocks on CNN.com or Surround Sessions (essentially a road block) on NYTimes.com. Even Comedy Central has recently advertised the Daily Show's election coverage as a Day Pass ad on Salon.com.

All manner of advertiser seems to use either Home Page Takeovers or Road Blocks. When asked if any advertiser in particular made use of them, publisher representatives didn't distinguish by category of advertiser but rather the quality of the statement an advertiser wants to make.

"These units are ideal for advertisers with a bold brand message or complex creative, such as streaming," says David Leider, Category Development Officer for Automotive, of Yahoo! But preference for the big, bold, and beautiful seems to be greatest among the automotive and entertainment categories.

One thing is certain, regardless of what kinds of advertiser are making use of Home Page Takeovers or Road Blocks those that are have created restrictive demand. Yahoo! has sold this inventory in a kind of "upfront"-like format.  Scott Bender, Sales Manger for CNN Networks, said that "home page roadblocks have been very popular this year on CNN.com. In our case we've actually had to turn away business, as inventory has tightened in the second half of the year."

It is difficult to know just how much is being spent on the Home Page Takeover or Road Block format, but these things aren't cheap. Sources not speaking for attribution said that a one-day Takeover on a weekend being sold as remnant (please note: this almost never happens) would go for two-hundred thousand dollars. For a "prime time" online run (for example an at-work daypart for adults on a Tuesday or Wednesday) one can expect to pay as much as twice that.

But the results seen from some of these types of ad formats justify the costs.

For example: by most accounts, Ford's launch of the 2004 F-150 was deemed the most successful in the history of the company. During Ford's campaign, a full-page animated "home page takeover" ad on Yahoo!, MSN and AOL (Netscape) ran. According to an IAB XMOS study, in a single day Ford reached 43 percent of its total target audience of men age 25-54. According to a published statement from the IAB, "Ford realized $750 million dollars worth of revenue from online."

In a DoubleClick Q2 2004 Ad Serving Trends report, the 550 x 480, which is most often used for interstitials, had the very highest click rates at 2.35 percent.

This is certainly enough of an impact to justify doing as much of this kind of advertising as possible and spending as much as is being asked by publishers to make it happen.

Something else about the impact of the home page takeover or the road block is the effect it has on clients themselves. The power of the unit's visibility and the use of that to merchandise online media inside a company cannot be underestimated. Clients love these kinds of ad placements because they can actually see them, point them out to colleagues, and show them to management when they are asked, "so, what did our online budget go towards?" These ad placements overcome the still-persistent barrier to traditional marketing clients' involvement with online advertising; namely, getting to see the ad itself and be impressed by it as a regular consumer of media would be.

If marketers go to greater lengths to own -– or at least rent -– more of an individual's online media environment, will individuals accept it as part of a subsidized media experience or will they head to the barricades?

"At Yahoo! we are incredibly conscientious of the user experience," says David Leider.

"We believe that a positive consumer experience is [the] key to a positive advertiser experience. We have structured our front page events to offer marketers innovative advertising experience, while not marring the content of the page so the user has full control over page navigation. We also offer feedback links in each advertisement and take user feedback very seriously."

It would seem that the majority of the major online content providers do have as their primary concern a person's experience. However, some publishers are deploying neat-o technologies that enable takeovers not enabled with frequency controls. Similarly, some advertisers don't always design coherent creative that takes advantage of the road block format. But in general the publishers making these available do make efforts to keep user experience at the center.

Scott Bender of CNN Networks points out there is a "big difference between a takeover/100 percent share-of-voice of existing ad units and one where an advertiser's message is jumping out of the banner." Frequency control for these units is paramount, he says.

The future undoubtedly holds more Home Page Takeovers and Road Blocks in online advertising. Until consumer backlash is at a fever pitch, marketers most often does what works, even if people don't like it. After all, in the marketing world, real backlash is only that which does not yield sales. If the marketing doesn't ultimately move the needle, it isn't working.  Until then, if it's new and it works, keep doing it and do more of it.

"I think advertisers are always looking for ways of breaking through the media fragmentation, regardless of the platform," says Scott Bender. "Roadblocks are one way of doing this."

Says David Leider of Yahoo!, "Innovative creative which entertains the consumer and contributes to their overall experience will provide a positive experience. They key is to offer impactful creative while not changing the consumer experience. If done well and right, we believe this type of advertising has great future potential."

Jim Meskauskas is Chief Strategic Officer for Underscore Marketing LLC in New York.