Halifax unveils new ad format

Halifax has become the first major financial company in the UK to run dynamic HTML (DHTML) ads.

The online ads feature Halifax employee Howard Brown riding across users’ screens on a dolphin and a swan, concluding with a box that can be clicked for information.

Halifax’s online creative agency, eBrands @ DLKW, used an off-the-shelf technology called Eyeblaster to create the ads. US-based Eyeblaster aims to dominate DHTML, just as Unicast dominates superstitial ads – animated ads with sound.

Halifax has used superstitials to support its current Howard Brown TV campaign. Helen Holdsworth, e-marketing manager at Halifax, says the campaign “lent itself to this experimental [DHTML] treatment.”

Few websites accept DHTML ads, and some believe they are too intrusive. But eBrands @ DLKW project manager Nitzan Yaniv says: “All ads are intrusive – that’s the nature of advertising.”

Halifax’s DHTML ads will appear on BT Openworld, Virgin.net, This is Money, UK Plus and Moneyextra from January 16. Media was planned and bought by Zenith Interactive Solutions.