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Yahoo! Australia & NZ Enhances Industry-Leading Rich Media Advertising Solutions…   SYDNEY, 12 August 2003 - Continuing to show leadership in the rich media area, Yahoo! Australia & NZ (www.yahoo.com.au) has launched a Rich Media Centre for Australian marketers seeking to understand how the latest technology and new ad units can help them reach their target audience. Yahoo! Australia & NZ is also the first local online media company to offer marketers access to Eyewonder and Point Roll creative technology. Both services are being used for the first time on yahoo.com.au by agency OneDigital on behalf of Microsoft XP's Amazing PC campaign. Eyewonder technology allows advertisers to instantly stream video and audio ads without the consumer needing to download a specific player to watch them. Eyewonder detects the users connection and instantly delivers the video that is appropriate to that user, from 28.8 and up. Users experiences are consistent across all environments & connection speeds. "It makes it incredibly simple to convert TV and radio ads to run in an online format," said Leanne Sheraton, marketing & sales director, Yahoo! Australia & NZ. "These ads can have conversion rates up to 110% higher than normal gif ads. The delivery of video & audio creates the strongest branded messaging opportunities available on the internet today, emotional connections and all the other benefits of online marketing including data capture and direct buying opportunities." "It also means Australian marketers can reach workers with their latest campaigns during the day time when they're in front of their computers, not their TV screens." Point Roll products are user-initiated and allow the advertiser to bring their website to the user. When a user clicks to expand (or rolls over) a Point Roll ad, the normal looking banner instantly expands, exposing additional panels with multiple messages below the original ad. The user is not redirected, but rather exposed to a page-based mini-site. When the user moves off the ad or the panel, the panels instantly disappear, leaving the consumer to continue viewing the original website uninterrupted. "We value our more than four million Australian users greatly, so it's our priority to balance their experience with valuable solutions for advertisers, that's why a user-initiated ad like this is such a great fit," said Sheraton. Yahoo! Rich Media solutions enable marketers to use the most advanced tools for online campaigns, including streaming audio and video, floating ads, expandable ads and other interactive units. These solutions support marketers' key objectives of increased brand awareness and consumer interaction with messages. The new rich media centre is available at http://solutions.yahoo.com.au. "The Internet can be a powerful brand-building medium," said Sheraton. "Yahoo! remains committed to helping advertisers use every tool possible to enhance the impact of their online campaigns." Additional Information: What is Rich Media? Rich Media is advertising that extends beyond a standard advertising unit and engages the user. This higher level of engagement is particularly effective for advertisers. Yahoo! leads the industry in innovating and implementing high-impact, creative executions on a global platform. Rich media has many advantages over standard media. Rich media increases brand impact and interaction and encourages involvement with the advertisement thus creating a deeper emotional engagement. Rich media also provides significant creative flexibility, allowing a greater depth of information to be conveyed and conveniently provides the opportunity to repurpose offline creative. All of these advantages add up to increased ad effectiveness and help ensure a successful campaign. Industry research emphasises the effectiveness of rich media: Dynamic Logic study (June 2002) Rich media provides message association lift among 44% of subject, compared with 21% for gif/jpg Rich media used in study included Eyeblaster, EyeWonder Study determined that rich media may be more cost-effective with the increased messages association See some examples: Visit the Yahoo! Australia & NZ Marketing Solutions site at solutions.yahoo.com.au, or click directly on: http://au.solutions.yahoo.com/advertising/richmedia.html -ENDS- For further information please contact: Leanne Sheraton Marketing & Sales Director, Yahoo! Australia & NZ Tel: 02 8925 0100 or Anna Featherstone, PR Manager Copyright © 1994-2003 Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved.