At Catalyst, we’ve spent a lot of hours designing and conducting usability studies on ad-supported media sites. And based on our experience, the general rule is that users understand why ads are there and are somewhat willing to tolerate them as a necessary evil — assuming they see them at all, which they often don’t. So, the idea of a new ad format — the Twig, from VideoEdd — that requires user interaction (rollover or click) for it to be visible did not strike me as a viable solution to this problem.

I’m definitely sympathetic to the fact that online publishers are desperate to find new ways to monetize their content, and there are certainly some clever aspects to the new Twig format. I’m not so sure that this will translate to greater user engagement or increased awareness of advertiser messaging. One of the Twig innovations is the “toolbar” nature of the format — they way it hovers over the page in a consistent and permanent location regardless of scrolling. As it happens we have tried navigational elements that behave in a similar fashion and these often test poorly since users visually associate these elements with the browser and don’t “see” them as part of the page. For this reason, we think it’s likely that the users not even particularly notice the Twig is there. Those that do notice it are not likely to interact with the ad — unless by accident.

The Twig may be superior to the in-page video unit that takes up more space (that users are definitely trained to ignore by now), but I don’t think it’s a particularly good solution for publishers who are striving for greater engagement with their users or better visibility for their advertisers.

Via Mashable.

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