Ad It Up
By Al Williams
Most television ads are boring. When you do find one that's striking or funny, it really catches your attention. The infamous Smart Beep ad comes to mind (search the Web for "smartbeep commercial" if you don't know what I'm talking about). The problem with most Web banner ads is that they're even more boring than the average TV commercial.
Most banners are just static pictures—reminiscent of billboards along the highway. A few use animated GIFs to add a bit of interest. Interactive Web pages are always more interesting than static pages. It stands to reason, then, that an interactive ad will be more effective than a static banner ad.
A Java applet can help make an ideal interactive advertisement. There are a few things you need to consider, however.
Ads are small in file size compared to most applets you'll write. Standard ad display sizes vary, but 400x60 pixels is common. And once you complete the interactive portion of the ad (for example, collecting information from the user), you have to take appropriate action. This usually involves passing information to another Web page.
I'm no fancy artist, but that doesn't mean I can't design a simple interactive ad. My example allows potential customers to select components for a PC. A single click takes users to a Web page that provides a final cost for the system, and could—in theory, anyway—take their order information immediately.
You can see the result of my efforts in
Figure 1 and
