Meebo Plus 40 (New Ad Network Alert)

Meebo, the leading social network and IM chat platform, has announced that it will begin to sell advertising across 40 top publisher sites like AddictingGames, IGN.com, and Current TV.

It was only a matter of time before Meebo launched this new ad network. They had the popular brand recognition — and now they have the audience reach. For their large publisher partners, they offer a chat services that enables users to directly connect and chat on sites. The ad units are to be displayed right within this enterprise chat service. So while the Meebo.com site itself only boasts 4.1 million unique users, which is relatively small in online publishing, Meebo with the addition of 40 sites has a very respectable reach of over 45 million unique users.

What I like most about this announcement is Meebo’s ad unit of choice: a rich media/expandable 900×400 banner.  Though they would have liked acquired more ad sales fill rates with standard IAB ad units (like the always in fashion, 300×250 ad unit), Meebo instead is taking a smart risk — and letting advertisers share in the reward. For brand advertisers, Meebo offers a lot of interactivity within its ad units via a display ad beside a video promotion, clickable thumbs, and a send to friend feature.

Sure, the larger the ad, the higher the probability of annoying users. But Meebo is offer such a valuable service for free that I think the consumer backlash will be minimal. Also, the ad is expandable only when the user initiates it by hovering over it. Smart!

I wrote previously that at a time when brand advertisers are cutting back spending, it’s more important than ever for ad networks to differentiate. If you think about it, any ad network can offer you audience reach, standard ad units, and strong publisher sites. But only a select handful of ad networks, now Meebo included, can offer advertisers a chance to get creative and interact at a high level with their audience. Meebo ads are creative and presented in the right context: It’s an interactive ad presented to users when they are in the act of interaction (with friends and peers). Love it!

I’ll likely be reaching out to them over the next few weeks for a Q4 test ad buy.

Yahoo Unveils Partners for Web TV at CES

Yahoo announced major partnerships with television manufacturers: Sony, LG, Samsung, and Vizio. Under the deal announced today at CES, Yahoo’s web platform will be integrated within television. Yahoo branded services and applications can be accessed while you’re watching television. The applications, mainly widgets to start, would reside alongside television shows and would remain as a means to complement (not replace) television programming.

So imagine watching the Wall Street headlines on CNN and getting instant access to company profiles and charts per Yahoo Finance… or watching the Travel Network and making new connections with people that have been to Peru, your next travel spot. For big sports fans such as myself, watch Monday Night Football (NFL) while beside it, tracking your Yahoo Fantasy team points.

If Yahoo is successful and can lead and open up the way for web applications to converge with television, a whole new Industry can follow in its coat tails. New start-ups would spawn to build widgets and other useful applications for television. Similar to widgets for social networks (per a Clearspring or Slide.com), there would be new applications that make the television viewing experience more social, interactive, collaborative, share-able, and most importantly, more entertaining!

It also creates new business models for existing web application developers:  Companies that rely on advertising revenues and are currently limited to the web only can now distribute their widgets (with clients’ advertising) on CNN, the Travel Network, and Monday Night Football!

New agencies, ad networks, and services companies will also be born around the new TV-Applications Industry.