Site Takeovers…
Online content creators are really experimenting with alternatives to traditional online advertising as ad budgets and CPMs continue to get whacked. Denton’s Gawker has had some success thusfar with his branded site takeovers. I think Gawker’s baseline for doing any type of ad treament like this is $50k. NY Post has also had some success with takeovers, although their version of it is kind of ridiculous. Gothamist also offers something similar and has tried to popularize the format. While not a content creater, UGO basically blows everyone away with their custom ad positions.
Is this the future? I mean full blown page skins are kind of cool, but it all comes down to page views and whether or not you offer up enough volume to make it worth the while for advertisers at the end of the day. Keep in mind that about 90% of these ad treatments are for TV, which usually have 2 week ad flights, so small window for delivery.
Watch out for what the Diller/Brown connection comes up with for The Daily Beast - I know they are going with fully custom units only and Diller thinks this is the future of online ad spend.
