PPC - AOL's Project Devil, Could It Be Apocalyptic To the Existing Display Advertising?

Presentable, extremely interactive, more relevant but most of all bigger and better is what AOL had in mind when they created 'Project Devil'. So what is it and why could it end the contemporary form of display advertising?

It is a new method of advertising products using online-magazine style content on the display advertising network. A user’s advert appears on the whole right side bar of a webpage and their ad solely occupies the ad space without any competition. The ad formats and features available range from Interactivity, video and social media integration and all in one package.

AOL launched this project last month; starting with a couple of their websites; ‘moviefone.com’ and ‘StyleList.com’. Plans are undergoing to include eight additional websites in their network by November 2010; potential brand currently campaigning on the network includes Cheerios, Macy’s, Sprint, Suave Professionals and Pillsbury Crescents. Websites not owned by AOL will also be part of the network to expand their segment.

This form of display advertising is AOL’s solutions to minimise noise within the communicative process of internet advertising. Devil reduces page clutter, keeping the acutely targeted audience focused on the client’s advert. The additional benefits, which Pipon believes is Devil’s unique selling point, is its ability to blend the adverts on a webpage they’re placed on, & interact with the visitors without their knowledge of its commercial purposes.

Granting it is too early to advise and forecast its performance and expectation, Pipon believes this could be a new web innovation, inspired from magazine advertising to give great exposure to clients, however it raises a couple of issues which if not tackled can halt its potential accomplishments.

For instance, currently cost of running a campaign on Devil is high, which in return limits their clientele to big brands. In addition to that, their display advertising structure restricts the ad placement to one advert per page, which unfortunately affects their click rates to decrease.

Dirk Freytag, SVP at AOL and CEO of AdTech claims not to be concerned in a statement by ClickZ News, where he explains that “although the inventory volume (AOL’s) has decreased, ad revenue has remained the same. The company expects its ad revenue to grow as the Devil promos are disseminated across its sites”