Doubleclick Launches Widget Advertising Through Rich Media

Widget Ads Provide Media and Creative Agencies with Virality, Content Delivery and Consumer Behavior Metrics

Mountain View, California, March 17, 2008 : DoubleClick Inc, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, today announced the support of widget advertising within the core DART for Advertisers (DFA) ad serving platform through the creation of the new Widget Ad rich media format. Widget Ads enable media and creative agencies to integrate a viral component into any campaign to allow consumers to “snag” or “grab” the ad onto their personal homepage or social network page. Widget Ads allow brands to move beyond strictly paid media and help them to build an ongoing interactive and engaging relationship with consumers.

Advertising Info

Widget advertising is a growing trend, especially within social networks. According to Prospero, 22 percent of marketers surveyed used widgets as a social media marketing application last year. They predict that this year, the number of marketers who plan to use widgets will double to 47 percent (Source: eMarketer, December 2007, “Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage”).

“Widgets are part of a fundamental change within the online marketing arena,” said Ari Paparo, vice president of advertiser products for DoubleClick. “Widget Ads provide audiences with the ability for self-expression and identification with well-loved brands while providing marketers the benefits of virality and engagement along with the measurability of traditional online channels.”

Interactive agencies and marketers often look to Widget Ads for easy integration of viral distribution options into any online campaign. Widget Ads are developed using the same creative process and applications as DoubleClick Rich Media ads. In addition, Widget Ads are created with a customizable Sharing Component to support virality.

“Since DoubleClick’s Widget Ads follow the same creative workflow as rich media ads, incorporating widgets into a campaign is straight-forward for our creative developers,” said Laura Primack, associate creative director of Avatar Labs. “From a creative standpoint, we can build the most exciting and engaging viral content, seamlessly include the Sharing Component, then configure it to support our preferred social networks.”

The sharing component is powered by Gigya, a leading provider of tools and technologies for distributing widgets. Gigya’s Wildfire technology installs hundreds of thousands of widgets per day to more than 50 of the leading social networks, blogs and bookmarking platforms.

“Incorporating viral functionality helps give advertisers the ability to tap into the incredible power of potential brand evangelists,” said Ben Pashman, vice president of business development with Gigya. “The combination of DoubleClick’s leading rich media advertising technologies, world-class analytics, and our proven Wildfire widget sharing tools are now enabling great creative to enter a user’s social circle, where it may become an even more powerful, user-endorsed ad unit.”

Widget Ads may be distributed in a multitude of ways including branded websites, word-of-mouth outreach and even through another rich media ad. In addition, integration with the industry-standard DART platform allows for valuable Widget Ad metrics including impressions, interactions, video metrics, viral “grabs” for different social networks, and reach and frequency, all easily managed with DART for Advertisers (DFA). These metrics help provide insight into viral distribution patterns and the effect of widgets on conversion, as well as the option for refreshable content and message control.