What is Superstitial Ad Unit

Superstitial format is a standard in online advertising created by Unicast - a non-banner, interactive advertising solutions and Services Company for the Internet.

Superstitials are highly interactive, non-banner ads that can be any size on the computer screen and up to 100K in file size, featuring full animation, sound and graphics capable of effectively conveying integrated advertising while protecting a Web site's performance.

Pre-loaded using a patent-pending "polite" delivery system that minimizes the latency problems often experienced with streaming online advertising solutions, Superstitial ads play only upon a user-initiated break in surfing, such as a mouse click.

Superstitials can be used to achieve multiple advertising goals, including branding, direct marketing, commerce and entertainment. Superstitial ads play only once fully loaded, ensuring that every user gets a consistent and complete brand message and that each advertiser pays only for guaranteed impressions.

Additionally, because Superstitial ad units exist outside the banner space, they can create an entirely new revenue stream for Web publishers.

Source: www.webopedia.com 

Polite Ads

Working with non-streaming ads can be challenging. They often take a long time to download, which in turn can negatively impact the visitor's experience on that page. 

Polite ad formats were developed to address this challenge by enabling advertisers to serve larger file formats without disturbing the load time for the rest of the images on the page.

A polite ad format is loaded in two phases:

Phase One: The initial load is a compact image or SWF file that is smaller in size, so there is no delay in loading other contents on the page. This could be the first few frames of the ad, or a teaser.

Phase Two: The main load is the full version of the Ad. The full ad can have a larger file size. It is loaded only after the whole web page has finished loading into the visitor's browser.

Benefits of Polite Ads

• Serve larger file formats without disrupting web page content for a more positive user experience
• Provides advertisers with greater creative flexibility without compromising the experience of the user.

Source: www.mojorichmedia.com

Types of Display Advertising

The large majority of online advertising has a cost that is brought about by usage or interaction of an ad; there are a few other methods of advertising online that only require a onetime payment. The Million Dollar Homepage is a very successful example of this. Visitors were able to pay $1 per pixel of advertising space and their advert would remain on the homepage for as long as the website exists with no extra costs.

Below are the major types of display advertising;

Floating ad: An ad which moves across the user's screen or floats above the content.

Expanding ad: An ad which changes size and which may alter the contents of the webpage.

Polite ad: A method by which a large ad will be downloaded in smaller pieces to minimize the disruption of the content being viewed

Wallpaper ad: An ad which changes the background of the page being viewed.

Trick banner: A banner ad that looks like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert.

Pop-up: A new window which opens in front of the current one, displaying an advertisement, or entire webpage.

Pop-under: Similar to a Pop-Up except that the window is loaded or sent behind the current window so that the user does not see it until they close one or more active windows.

Video ad: similar to a banner ad, except that instead of a static or animated image, actual moving video clips are displayed. This is the kind of advertising most prominent in television, and many advertisers will use the same clips for both television and online advertising.

Map ad: text or graphics linked from, and appearing in or over, a location on an electronic map such as on Google Maps.

Mobile ad: an SMS text or multi-media message sent to a cell phone.

Superstitial: An animated adv on a Web page from Enliven Marketing Technologies. It uses video, 3D content or Flash to provide a TV-like advertisement. Used to be known as Unicast Transitional ads as they were originally made by Unicast Communications but the company was acquired by Viewpoint Corporation in 2004, which then changed its name to Enliven in 2008.

Interstitial ad: a full-page ad that appears before a user reaches their original destination.

In addition, ads containing streaming video or streaming audio are becoming very popular with advertisers.

Source: en.wikipedia.org